Washington Post: Trump DEI crackdown targets books in Pentagon schools

The Defense Department has begun restricting access to books and learning materials covering subjects from immigration to psychology in its school system serving U.S. military families, citing the Trump administration’s crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, according to defense officials familiar with the effort and a memo obtained by The Washington Post.

The effort affects curriculums for elementary school ages and up, and follows similar efforts at the U.S. military’s elite academies for prospective military officers. The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) serves about 67,000 students spread across about 160 schools at military installations around the globe.

A list distributed with the memo details specific chapters from books, or entire books, that have been immediately removed, with their return uncertain while pending a compliance review. Among the newly restricted material is a book chapter in a psychology course for advanced-placement high school students about gender and sexuality, a lesson for fifth-graders about how immigration affects the United States, and the book “Becoming Nicole,” a nonfiction work about a family coming to accept their transgender daughter.

The prohibited list also includes a bundle of instructional materials created for sixth-graders for Black History Month and a biography about Albert Cashier, a transgender man who served in the Union Army during the Civil War.

A DoDEA spokesman, Will Griffin, said in a statement that the restrictions have been put in place as the agency examines which “instructional resources” are in compliance with two executive orders from President Donald Trump restricting discussion of transgender people and targeting what the administration calls the “radical indoctrination” of children by schools teaching DEI.

“DoDEA is reviewing its current policies and DoDEA-adopted instructional resources to ensure compliance with applicable Executive Orders and Department of Defense guidance,” the statement said. He added that “books potentially related to gender ideology or discriminatory equity ideology” as defined in Trump’s executive orders will be relocated to a book collection for staff to be evaluated.

“During this period,” he said, “access will be limited to professional staff.”

Lori Pickel, a senior official at DoDEA, sent a memo Wednesday to school superintendents, principals and other administrators in the school system saying DoDEA is conducting an “operational compliance review” and “educators are expected to implement this directive immediately.”

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland) in a post on X on Friday said he had received another memo from constituents at a U.S. military installation who were “outraged that censorship like this is happening against military families.”

“One asked a school official why they removed photos on the walls of Susan B. Anthony and Dr. [Martin Luther] King [Jr.] but not Leonardo DaVinci and was told: ‘He was a real historical figure,’” Raskin’s post on X said.

The restrictions also were decried by Rep. Gil Cisneros (D-California), a Navy veteran who previously oversaw the DoDEA school system as the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness in the Biden administration. Cisneros said that the decision is “atrocious” and stands in contrast to DoDEA’s recent history of being ranked as the best school system in the country in numerous independent assessments.

“They built that system on creating a diverse education that allows students to become well-rounded individuals,” Cisneros said. “By taking away books, by minimizing curriculum, taking away materials, taking away cultural events, you take away that diversity and you take away the things that allows them to go out and achieve.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office referred questions to DoDEA. Speaking to a group of Pentagon staff members Friday, he emphasized his belief that a focus on diversity in the Defense Department is destructive.

“I think the single, dumbest phrase in military history is, ‘Our diversity is our strength,’” Hegseth said. “I think our strength is our unity.”

He added that people should be treated equally regardless of their background, upbringing, gender or race, and judged based on their merit and commitment to the team and its mission.

“That’s how it has been. That’s how it will be,” Hegseth said. “Any inference otherwise is meant to divide or create complications that otherwise should not and do not exist.”

The restrictions on the Defense Department school system come after Hegseth pledged a shake-up at the military’s academies for prospective officers. On Tuesday, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, disbanded numerous groups for cadets, including the Society of Women Engineers and the Latin Culture Club.

Hegseth on Jan. 31 also issued a directive prohibiting the use of official resources to celebrate cultural awareness events such as Black History Month. Griffin, the DoDEA spokesman, said that the organization is complying with the directive, which has prompted the cancellation of numerous events across the Defense Department.