Donald Trump’s fear and loathing
Last week, I wrote about the Trump administration’s buffoonish crackdown on DEI programs, which only seemed like it would become even weirder. Sure enough, more examples have popped up that confirm how compliance efforts are being driven largely by fear and confusion, leading to knee-jerk, sloppy decisions.
Administrators at American colleges across the United States have now resorted to flagging everyday words like “women,” afraid that failing to avoid or replace such terms will trigger the Hater-in-Chief’s wrath. Adding to the confusion is the rampant inconsistencies and seeming omissions, such as including “woman” but not “man” or even “sex,” according to a report from Inside Higher Ed.
Over at the Department of Defense, officials quickly took down a webpage honoring Black Medal of Honor recipient U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Charles Calvin Rogers. According to a reportf from The Guardian, this page was later restored—yet thousands of pages honoring contributions by women and minority groups have been taken down as part of Trump’s DEI purge.
Meanwhile, Axios revealed that numerous articles about Navajo Code Talkers are now gone from military websites, replaced with error pages labeled “DEI.” The Navajo Code Talkers played a pivotal role in every major U.S. Marine Corps World War II operation in the Pacific, particularly Iwo Jima, where six Code Talkers reportedly sent over 800 error-free messages. Diversity was more than incidental—the Code Talkers’ role was “predicated on diversity in the military” because more widespread languages could not have provided the same level of needed encryption, according to the report.
America is indeed witnessing a DEI purge that combines classic hatred with a deep disdain for history and a frantic, fear-based compliance effort. That sure sounds like Donald Trump.
Ron Leshnower is a lawyer and the author of several books, including President Trump’s Month