So what is the goal here, to save money, or ultimately to kill unhealthy Americans that Republicans think are a drag on their wallets? Inside U.S. health agencies, workers confront chaos and questions as operations come ungluedflip.it/3rz_Ee
Jonathan says that when he asked a border agent to repeat a question, the reply was, “Are you deaf or just retarded?” He adds that he was then told, “Trump is back in town, we’re doing things the way we should have always been doing them.” Hit the link for much more. No paywall.
The quote below is only because they thought it would hand control over the schools to the republican religious haters like themselves. They fought for and got the right of a small minority to force their opinion on the majority of parents. They got the removal of books they hate and also forced in to the schools of their religion. It did not matter if a majority of parents wanted their children to have access to these books it was only the haters parental rights that mattered, not other kids parents. The progressive parents were not given the same authority that the republican religious haters were. Hugs
Ironically, Moms for Liberty, a group that has advocated for local control over schools, is now complicit in handing that power to the federal government.
The Trump administration’s weaponization of the Education Department continued apace on Thursday with the debut of what some are calling a “snitch line” — a website inviting parents, students and school staff to report “illegal discriminatory practices at institutions of learning.”
“The Department of Education (DOE) will utilize community submissions to identify potential areas for investigation,” the department notes.
The post went viral and fueled a confrontation with Trump and Maine Gov. Janet Mills.
The website was introduced in a press release by Moms for Liberty, the group behind efforts to purge LGBTQ+ content from school libraries and apparently a new partner in the DOE’s crackdown on school systems not falling in line with Trump’s DEI and “gender ideology” executive diktats.
“For years, parents have been begging schools to focus on teaching their kids practical skills like reading, writing, and math, instead of pushing critical theory, rogue sex education and divisive ideologies — but their concerns have been brushed off, mocked, or shut down entirely,” said Tiffany Justice, a co-founder of the group, which has been labelled an anti-LGBTQ+ extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“Parents, now is the time that you share the receipts of the betrayal that has happened in our public schools. This webpage demonstrates that President Trump’s Department of Education is putting power back in the hands of parents,” Justice added.
Ironically, Moms for Liberty, a group that has advocated for local control over schools, is now complicit in handing that power to the federal government.
Critics were aghast at the call for colleagues and kids to anonymously rat out anyone not falling in line with the rightwing ideology Trump is imposing from Washington.
“I believe Hitler had a program like this,” wrote Michael E. Mann, a scientist, author and director of the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media.
I believe Hitler had a program like thiswww.salon.com/2025/02/27/m…
“Trump Education Department opens snitch line to rat out diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts at local public schools,” wrote Gabe Ortíz, an editor at America’s Voice who focuses on immigration, LGBTQ+ and Latino issues.
“The fact that Trump’s — bigoted, extremist — effort to end diversity, inclusion, & equity in schools uses Moms for Liberty as its only validation tells you everything you need to know. The same Moms for Liberty that approvingly quoted Hitler & has deep ties to violent groups like the Proud Boys,” wrote Amy Spitalnick, CEO of Jewish Council for Public Affairs.
The DOE website’s launch follows a growing number of investigations undertaken by multiple departments targeting DEI and noncompliance with Trump’s “gender ideology” order.
The DOE’s Office of Civil Rights is investigating California and Minnesota schools. Maine is also the subject of a probe by the same office and the Department of Agriculture, recieving a threatening letter from the Attorney General Pam Bondi at the Department of Justice.
Another DOE probe targets San Jose State University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) for separate incidents involving trans athletes competing on a women’s or girls’ sports team under Biden-era rules.
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So what happened to the idea of the right just wanting immigrants to come here legally. Right? All they wanted was to get the illegals and criminals out. But these are people who came here the legal way and are working, living their lives as good members of the communities. No see to the current white supremacists the crime was brown people coming to the US at all. They want a white majority in charge with others second class or lower people. tRump once asked why no one from the Scandinavian countries immigrate to the US. The reason tRump wants them is they are white. But their country is doing so much better than ours and rated so much higher on the happiness index so why would they. The only ones who want to come here are from countries the US has made worse, ruined, and allowed for dictators or drug lords to take over. Hugs
The move could leave over 900,000 immigrants vulnerable to deportation — unless they self-deport, DHS said.
“Under federal law, Secretary [Kristi] Noem — in support of the president — has full authority to revoke parole,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told POLITICO in a statement. | Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
The Trump administration is revoking parole status for immigrants who entered the U.S. via the Biden-era CBP One app, in a push to get immigrants to voluntarily leave the country.
“Under federal law, Secretary [Kristi] Noem — in support of the president — has full authority to revoke parole. Canceling these paroles is a promise kept to the American people to secure our borders and protect national security,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told POLITICO in a statement.
Some immigrants began receiving formal email notices from the DHS on Tuesday stating that the department would be using its discretionary authority to revoke parole. The move could leave over 900,000 immigrants vulnerable to deportation.
The CBP One app, launched in January 2023, was one of the Biden administration’s key efforts to control illegal immigration, by organizing appointments at different ports of entry along the southern border for immigrants seeking asylum. The parole designation protected immigrants from deportation and also issued work authorizations for up to two years.
The Trump administration quickly suspended the app’s appointment system and rebranded it as CBP Home — with a built-in function for immigrants to report their intention to leave the U.S.
“Formal termination notices have been issued, and affected aliens are urged to voluntarily self-deport using the CBP Home App,” the DHS spokesperson said. “Those who refuse will be found, removed, and permanently barred from reentry.”
The parolees designated under United for Ukraine — which provided legal status for Ukrainians affected by the war — and Operation Allies Welcome — which resettled Afghans following the U.S. exit from Afghanistan — will not be affected, DHS added.
You know this is what the fundamentalist religious right wants to do this here. This is one of the reasons the maga right loves Russia and Putin, he hates who they hate. He wants a straight cisgender stereotypical white society the same as they do. Hugs
Russia’s Interior Ministry has plans for a sweeping electronic database of LGBTQ+ people in the country, Meduza, an independent Russian news outlet, revealed this week.
Citing anonymous sources at the Interior Ministry, the outlet reported that the Orwellian plan has been in discussion since last year after Russia’s Supreme Court outlawed the so-called “international LGBT movement” as an “extremist organization” at the urging of President Vladimir Putin.
Raids and arrests at LGBTQ+ clubs have become commonplace across the country.
The database will be a “large-scale” system to track members of the LGBTQ+ community at large, according to sources.
The plans were corroborated by Dmitry Chukreyev, an official with the Civic Chamber of Yekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth largest city. He said police have been keeping informal lists of LGBTQ+ individuals since the Supreme Court ruling was announced.
In 2024, police conducted at least 42 raids on LGBTQ+-friendly venues across Russia, according to an investigation by independent news outlet Current Time and human rights organization Sphere. Beatings, forced confinement, and sadistic humiliations based on sexual and gender identities are regular features of the sweeps.
Russian officials and state-aligned media regularly describe Russia’s LGBTQ+ community as a network of “paramilitary groups” calling for an “open gender war,” who engage in “dehumanization” and “devil worship,” the outlet reports. Officials and media credit security forces’ actions with “suppressing” anti-state activity.
The raids, in addition to intimidating the queer community at large and forcing the closure of several venues, have provided security officials with information that would supply an electronic LGBTQ+ registry.
An employee at a Siberian queer establishment told Meduza, “Security forces copied the entire database from the computer where we keep track of reservations,” obtaining information about hundreds of clients. Fingerprints and mouth swabs were collected from visitors during a raid the Eden club in Chelyabinsk, and employees and patrons at the Orenburg club Pose were forced to state their registered residential address on camera.
At a house party raided by security forces in Leningrad Oblast, guests were forced to surrender their passports and unlock their phones; if someone refused, the others were subjected to collective punishment and forced to squat.
According to human rights activists, such raids are also aimed at exposing LGBTQ+ government officials. The organizer of one queer-friendly event in the Urals region revealed police who raided the venue hoped to “catch deputies [officeholders] and other significant individuals” at the event.
While security forces continue to collect data in ever-more sadistic operations, progress on a full-scale LGBTQ+ registry has been hampered by Putin’s other current obsession: the expansion of Greater Russia through his war on Ukraine. Forces assigned to that conflict are draining the ranks of police who would otherwise be hunting down members of the “international LGBT movement.”
But the raids continue to produce results.
One sweep at a restaurant and club in Gorno-Altaysk last year yielded data on 80 patrons and staff alone, an employee said.
“We know all of you now,” security forces repeated as the raid dragged on.
The reason they are doing this is clear. They want to make sure that no one can afford to fight their deportation order in the courts. Think of it is you were required to pay that money daily how long could you afford to do so? Hugs
Trump turns to rarely used 1996 law to fine and potentially seize migrant assets
Administration calls on migrants to “self deport and leave the country now”
Memo obtained by Reuters says implementing fines would require system overhaul
WASHINGTON, April 8 – The Trump administration plans to fine migrants under deportation orders up to $998 a day if they fail to leave the United States and to seize their property if they do not pay, according to documents reviewed by Reuters.
The fines stem from a 1996 law, opens new tab that was enforced for the first time in 2018, during President Donald Trump’s first term in office. The Trump administration plans to apply the penalties retroactively for up to five years, which could result in fines of more than $1 million, a senior Trump official said, requesting anonymity to discuss non-public plans.
The Trump administration is also considering seizing the property of immigrants who do not pay the fines, according to government emails reviewed by Reuters.
In response to questions from Reuters, U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that immigrants in the U.S. illegally should use a mobile app formerly known as CBP One – rebranded as CBP Home under Trump – to “self deport and leave the country now.”
“If they don’t, they will face the consequences,” McLaughlin said. “This includes a fine of $998 per day for every day that the illegal alien overstayed their final deportation order.”
Emails reviewed by Reuters show the White House has pressed U.S. Customs and Border Protection to handle the issue of penalties, property seizures for migrants who don’t pay, and the sale of their assets.
The Department of Justice’s civil asset forfeiture division could be another option for the seizures, one email said.
President Donald Trump kicked off a sweeping immigration crackdown after taking office in January, testing the bounds of U.S. law to increase arrests and deportations. The planned fines target the roughly 1.4 million migrants who have been ordered removed by an immigration judge.
WHITE HOUSE PRESSURE
Trump invoked the 1996 law during his first term to levy fines of hundreds of thousands of dollars against nine migrants seeking sanctuary in churches. The administration withdrew the penalties, but then proceeded with smaller fines of about $60,000 per person against at least four of the migrants, according to court records.
President Joe Biden stopped issuing the fines and rescinded, opens new tab related policies when he took office in 2021.
Scott Shuchart, a top ICE policy official under Biden, said migrants and their supporters could challenge the fines in court but that the threat alone could have a chilling effect.
“Their point isn’t really to enforce the law, it’s to project fear in communities,” he said.
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The proposed asset seizures against the migrants who fail to comply with final deportation orders could impact U.S. citizens or permanent residents in their households.
The immigration advocacy group FWD.us estimates that some 10 million migrants with no legal status or temporary protections are living with U.S. citizens or permanent residents in what are known as “mixed status households.”
The steep fines could hit lower-income immigrants. An analysis of 2019 Census data by the non-partisan Migration Policy Institute found 26% of households with unauthorized immigrants had incomes below the federal poverty line.
Trump has said people with final deportation orders should be a priority for removal although many have families, jobs and established ties in the U.S.
The White House National Security Council and Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff for policy, have been pressing CBP to administer the fines and handle seizures, a CBP official wrote in a March 31 email reviewed by Reuters.
But a CBP memo a day later, also reviewed by Reuters, argued for ICE to take on the task instead. The memo said that CBP’s systems do not currently support this type of immigration fine and that upgrading it could lead to significant costs and implementation delays.
The memo anticipated CBP would need at least 1,000 new paralegal specialists, up from the current staffing of 313.
The start date for the fines remained unclear. DHS did not comment on Miller’s involvement or the technical aspects of implementing the penalties.
Reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington and Kristina Cooke in San Francisco; Editing by Mary Milliken and Suzanne Goldenberg
The tRump admin has dehumanized the immigrant population to the point that they feel they can deny them due process. Stop and think about it. Anyone not white citizen or not, legal or not, can be taken and disappeared. What is to stop them from snatching a US citizen they want gone? Think of the police being able to be judge, jury, and if they decide to be the executioner. Pulled over by a cop for driving too fast, he just takes you from your car, arrests you, transports you to jail where you stay for as long as they want, maybe forever. ICE is taking these people and sending them to a prison that no one has ever been released from. Homan said “I’ve talked to the highest level at ICE and they’ve reassured me several times: Everyone that was removed under the Alien Enemies Act was a gang member and a terrorist,” Homan said. But we know that is not true. Several that were removed were not gang members nor terrorist. These ICE and administration people want to just declare someone is something and that is the end of it. But that is what due process is for, to find the truth and protect the innocent. Plus due process and rights extend to anyone on US soil, not just white people or citizens. Hugs
Tom Homan talks with reporters on the West Wing driveway on March 17. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Immigration agents are the “principal” deciders on whether a detainee is linked to a gang and should be deported immediately, border czar Tom Homan told Axios in an exclusive interview.
If agents determine the answer is yes, Homan said, the Trump administration believes that detainee’s rights to due process are limited.
Not so fast, the Supreme Court said late Monday. The court signaled that detainees designated as “enemies” of the U.S. could be deported, but should have some way to challenge their removal.
Driving the news: Homan’s comments to Axios came on a day when the Supreme Court began to sort out how far President Trump can go in his aggressive push to deport immigrants the administration sees as threats to the U.S.
In a separate decision, Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily blocked a lower court’s order that the U.S. return a Maryland man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, whom the administration admits was mistakenly deported to a prison in El Salvador.
Garcia, a Salvadoran who had been in the U.S. since 2011 and was here legally, was among those swept up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in raids last month that officials say targeted alleged gang members and criminals.
Many of those arrested were men like Garcia who say they weren’t in gangs or wanted for crimes, civil rights advocates and other critics say. Garcia’s case has become a much-watched test of the White House’s zealous push for deportations.
Zoom in: Homan declined to comment on Garcia’s case. But he told Axios that Trump is simply “using the laws on the books” to quickly deport unauthorized and potentially dangerous immigrants under the rarely used Alien Enemies Act.
“People who are enemies of the United States don’t have the same level [of] due process [as in] the normal process,” Homan said.
“People keep saying they have no criminal history,” he added. “I’ve been doing law enforcement since 1984. Many gang members don’t have criminal history. It’s more than criminal history.”
Homan said ICE conducts “deep dive” investigations into detainees being considered for removal, looking at their social media posts, criminal records, immigration records and information from confidential informants and surveillance.
“ICE is the principal arbiter” in weighing whether such factors warrant deportation, Homan said. “There’s a Homeland Security task force and a lot of agents involved. … But it starts with ICE.”
The administrationclaims Garcia is a member of MS-13, a transnational gang that U.S. officials have designated as a terrorist organization.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinia in Maryland said Trump’s team made a “grievous error” deporting Garcia, and that evidence indicating he’s a gang member “consisted of nothing more than his Chicago Bulls hat and hoodie.”
Between the lines: Homan said agents use several factors in determining membership in a designated terrorist gang such as MS-13 or the Venezuelan-based Tren de Aragua.
He said those factors include, but aren’t limited to, tattoos or religious emblems: “It can be one factor or up to 20 factors … It’s a case-by-case analysis.”
Agents’ decisions for identifying gang members are made using a rubric with an eight-point threshold for removal, according to a court document.
In the case of Tren de Aragua, a tattoo “denoting membership/loyalty to TDA” would count four points toward a removal action, according to the document. If a person admits being a gang member, that alone would be enough for removal from the U.S.
“I’ve talked to the highest level at ICE and they’ve reassured me several times: Everyone that was removed under the Alien Enemies Act was a gang member and a terrorist,” Homan said.
The other side: “Just the word of an ICE officer should not suffice as the final word that someone is covered by the Alien Enemies Act,” said Muzaffar Chishti, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute.
Nayna Gupta, policy director at the American Immigration Council, said it was “wild” that the administration would seek to ignore due process for accused immigrants.
She noted that when the Alien Enemies Act was used against people of Japanese, German and Italian descent during World War II, there was a hearing process for the accused.
Reverend Ed Trevors did a video on this. He liked the guys message but thought the way he did it was wrong. For me it is amazing that in Florida he was not seriously hurt by the police that came to the scene. They read his message and did not use their authority to harm him for it. As you know in Florida the authorities are not respectful or kind to those who are expressing a message of kindness, tolerance, and acceptance of others. Hugs
By Melinda Henneberger Updated March 31, 2025 6:57 PM
“I wasn’t preaching hate or using profanity,” says Jimbo Gillcrist. Then he was thrown to the ground. Melinda Henneberger
A man who walked up to the pulpit at the church he’d grown up in, Holy Spirit Catholic Church in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, a few minutes before last Sunday’s 11 a.m. Mass was soon wrestled to the ground by four parishioners.
Jimbo Gillcrist had just started to recite his own version of the “Our Father,” and to say how we’re all God’s children. He had intended to talk to his fellow Catholics about care for the migrant, but he didn’t get to before being taken down, marched out and handcuffed by OP police.
“I thought the worst that could happen is maybe they’d try to shout me down and ask me to leave,” Gillcrist told me in an interview on Friday. “I in no way thought I’d be tackled in a church.”
When one of those who removed him called the police, they reported, “He has long hair and a beard.”
I know that because I listened to the 38-minute audio of the whole thing that was recorded on Gillcrist’s phone, which his removers took away from him but failed to stop from recording.
So I can also say that the police who responded were a lot more chill than the church folk, one of whom asked the others, “Is anybody armed?” “Mine is in my car,” one responded.
“Mine is, too,” said another. All the better to protect followers of Christ from someone quoting Christ? Some horrible things have happened in churches throughout history, actually, so I could understand safety being a concern.
But the back-and-forth between Gillcrist and those who made him leave suggests they were more focused on propriety.
Holy Spirit’s pastor, Fr. Justin Hamilton, did not respond to a Friday message asking about what happened.
If Gillcrist’s name sounds familiar, he’s the theology teacher fired from Kansas City’s Rockhurst High School last November after telling his students that it would be their moral duty as Catholics to stand up against mass deportations. So here he is, doing that, or trying to.
‘Brother, you need to leave’ After he started his prayer, a priest approached him at the pulpit: “Come with me. Turn the sound off! Brother, you need to leave.”
And then, after the sounds of a very quick takedown came this: “Stay still. We’re not going to hurt you.”
“You already used violence against me in a church.”
“You’re trespassing.” “Trespassing? I’m a baptized Catholic.” “It’s inappropriate.” “To pray?” “There’s an appropriate time.” “It is the appropriate time.”
“No, you have to listen to your authorities, which is your pastor.”
As Gillcrist was taken out, he raised his voice for the first and only time, “Love your neighbor as yourself! And who is my neighbor?”
When police arrived, an officer asked those who had marched him out, “Did he do anything physical?”
“He pushed our priest off the steps” one answered, “but he didn’t fall or anything.”
A second officer arrived and said, “Is he the one who pushed the priest? Put him in handcuffs.”
“But I didn’t,” Gillcrist insisted.
We’ll figure it out, one of the officers said. And they did, while Gillcrist sat in the back of the patrol car in cuffs.
Video shows the moments before Jimbo Gillcrist was taken down at Holy Spirit Catholic Church. ‘So I see you mention Gaza and Ukraine’ Officers asked Gillcrist some questions as telling as his answers, so I’m just going to let the recording play:
“Why are they saying you pushed a priest?”
“They were trying to pull me away from the pulpit. I grabbed the pulpit and just held on. I didn’t push anyone. They had four guys grabbing me and dragging me off there.”
“What made you want to preach today?” “I’m worried about human beings, our brothers and sisters who live within our midst and are being targeted by the government.”
“What do you consider to be targeted by the government? What class of people are you …”
“Undocumented immigrants.”
“So you don’t agree with deportations and things like that?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Did you say anything like that?”
“I didn’t even get there.”
Looking at a copy of Gillcrist’s prepared remarks, the officer said, “So I see you mention Gaza and Ukraine in here. What’s your message with that?”
“They’re our brothers and sisters. When we stop seeing people that way it’s so easy to start making laws or enacting policies that harm them.”
In the end, another officer said he had talked to the pastor and there wouldn’t be any charges for now, but “if you do return here, you will be charged with trespassing.”
So was this a pointless provocation or an important disruption?
I understand those who say church needs to be a refuge from politics. At the same time, I don’t see how you could take Matthew Chapter 25 seriously — “for I was a stranger and you gave me no welcome” — and register no protest right now.
Where is American Oscar Romero?
Jesus spoke a lot about care for the stranger, who is these days being snatched off the street without any due process and used by smiling Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem as a prop — with a shaved head and few clothes, looking shamefully for us not unlike a prisoner in Dachau.
If you’re an actress from Canada, maybe things will eventually be made right, but if not, who knows? The danger everyone ought to see is that if you can be picked up and shipped out without any hearing for supporting Palestinians — and without due process, we really don’t know that it’s any more than that — then you can also be sent away for supporting Israel, or Ukraine.
Or Jesus, or even Donald Trump.
Gillcrist belongs to a different, less conservative parish now. But what he was thinking in going to Holy Spirit, he said, is that those in his original faith home may not hear his point of view very often. If he could move even one person who doesn’t like what’s going on a little closer to speaking out about that, he had to try.
Of course, his effort might also have had the opposite effect. He went, too, because he sees the Catholic Church in the U.S. as silent when it should be strong.
“Where is the American Romero?” he asked, referring to Oscar Romero, the sainted Salvadoran archbishop assassinated in 1980 for standing up against a repressive regime.
Gillcrist had just started speaking when he was stopped, so I don’t know that he had the chance to change that one mind, or that he would have even if he’d been allowed to finish.
I do know, however, that many are wondering how to make this country a place where both people and the rule of law matter again. They’re not sure how to stop our slide into autocracy.
I’m not, either, but we do know we have to try and then try some more. Whether or not Gillcrist went about it the right away, I give him credit for looking for different ways to express his straight-from-Jesus dissent.
Because for those of us revulsed by what’s going on, smiling along like we’re still in the “before times” is no longer possible. This story was originally published March 30, 2025 at 8:05 AM.
The defense secretary, along with the wider Trump administration, has spent its months in office purging the Pentagon, military and federal government of anything it deems diversity related, which has been widely interpreted by the military services and many others to mean anything that recognizes women and people with minority backgrounds.
Hegseth issued a vague order for the Defense Department to remove all “news articles, photos, and videos promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), including content related to critical race theory, gender ideology, and identity-based programs.”
Display case at the U.S. Naval Academy which housed removed items that commemorated female Jewish graduates. (Photo courtesy of Military Religious Freedom Foundation)
The U.S. Naval Academy has confirmed that officials there removed items commemorating female Jewish graduates from a historic display ahead of a visit to the school by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday.
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation, or MRFF, a nonprofit group that advocates for religious freedom, first reported on the move after its members noticed the removal of the items on display at the Commodore Uriah P. Levy Center and Jewish Chapel.
Cmdr. Ashley Hockycko confirmed late Tuesday that the historical items honoring the Jewish graduates had been removed but said that it was done so “mistakenly.” “U.S. Naval Academy leadership is immediately taking steps to review and correct the unauthorized removal,” she added.
The removal appears to be the latest example of military and defense officials removing displays, websites and other materials honoring the achievements of women and minorities within the military, often with the presumption of acting on Hegseth’s orders or reacting to his preferences and beliefs.
The defense secretary, along with the wider Trump administration, has spent its months in office purging the Pentagon, military and federal government of anything it deems diversity related, which has been widely interpreted by the military services and many others to mean anything that recognizes women and people with minority backgrounds.
Hegseth issued a vague order for the Defense Department to remove all “news articles, photos, and videos promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), including content related to critical race theory, gender ideology, and identity-based programs.”
Some of that content has been restored after the removals became public. However, Hegseth’s office has not offered a full accounting of what has been removed to date.
MRFF founder and President Mikey Weinstein told Military.com in an interview Wednesday that his organization heard from 31 Naval Academy faculty, Midshipmen and staff, who were “outraged” by the removal of the items.
According to the MRFF, the displays containing items from male Jewish graduates and service members were left untouched.
However, the items were removed for only a short time, and officials told Military.com that they had been restored by Tuesday evening, having been gone less than a day.
The military academy also purged nearly 400 books from its library around the time of Hegseth’s visit as well, an official confirmed to Military.com. The books were banned under the Trump administration push to purge materials related to diversity, and were culled from library shelves before the defense secretary’s visit to the academy, according to The Associated Press.
The move comes about a week after the Capital Gazette, an Annapolis newspaper, reported that leaders at the Naval Academy didn’t think they needed to remove any books since President Donald Trump’s January executive order banning materials on diversity applied to kindergarten through 12th-grade schools that receive federal funding — not colleges.
The Navy would not offer a list of the books removed when asked.
The orders and policies claiming to target “diversity, equity and inclusion” — a term that has taken on a difficult-to-define and amorphous meaning under the Trump administration — are leaving officials in the Pentagon and the military branches frustrated. They feel that many of the policies being released by Hegseth demand urgency but lack specifics and are open to interpretation.
One official who remained anonymous to speak freely without fear of retaliation frustratedly noted to Military.com that this dynamic sets up a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation.”
If the military services and their various offices overreact and remove content that becomes a scandal, they are slammed by Hegseth and his staff for “malicious compliance.”
That dynamic played out several weeks ago when the Pentagon was forced to walk back the removal of a website honoring trailblazing baseball player and Army veteran Jackie Robinson.
In a March 21 video, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell admitted that “some important content was inadvertently pulled offline” and attributed that to “the realities of AI tools and other software.” He said content was being both “mistakenly removed” and “maliciously removed.”
Meanwhile, the official went on to note, if the services take directives at their literal meaning, which was seemingly what the Naval Academy did when it decided it didn’t need to purge its library since it was not a K-12 school, that leads to the perception of noncompliance with orders and directives.
The result, according to the official, is a very uneven and ad hoc application of policy that leaves employees and officials paralyzed, frustrated and uncertain, with little more to go on than what they see in public statements like Parnell’s videos or Hegseth’s appearances on television.
“History is not DEI,” Parnell declared in his video.
“What does that mean? What am I supposed to do with that?” the official said.
A group of Moms for Liberty members
Scottie's Playtime 