Inside Trump’s racist crusade to erase American heroes from US history
President Donald Trump’s administration has made it a top priority to remove anything associated with diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives from federal websites, regardless of the context. But in doing so, it’s erasing history—and making a compelling case for why we shouldn’t be dismantling the Department of Education.
One glaring example of this is Pete Hegseth’s Department of Defense, which, in early March, erroneously removed a historic image of the B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, from the Pentagon’s website. (The plane dropped the first atomic bomb over Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II.) Why? Because the aircraft’s name contains the word “gay.”
This absurdity is a powerful illustration of how far Trump and his cronies will go in their quest to eliminate anything that might be construed as “inclusive.” But this particular flub reveals the administration’s true intentions: to distort historical facts for the sake of ideological purity.
More recently, on Tuesday, it was reported that the Defense Department removed articles about the Navajo Code Talkers from its website, supposedly following a directive from Trump and Hegseth to eliminate all DEI-related content from Pentagon and military sites.
As we’ve highlighted before, though, under Trump, DEI has been reduced to little more than a smokescreen. The term now serves as a tool for denying opportunities to people of color, women, and minorities—if not erasing them entirely from the history books.
So far, the Defense Department has been at the forefront of this effort to whitewash the past. But it’s not just Hegseth. Trump’s America doesn’t just tolerate blatant racism—it celebrates it. Nazi salutes are casually made by presidential surrogates without consequences, and Confederate generals are celebrated as heroes. History is being erased right before our eyes.
This past Friday, the Arlington Cemetery website deleted information about certain Black, Hispanic, and female service members, according to The Washington Post. Then, on Monday, the Post reported that a webpage honoring Pfc. Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian and one of the Marines famously photographed raising the American flag at Iwo Jima in 1945, had been removed from the Defense Department’s website. After public pushback, officials stated the page would be restored.
Jackie Robinson, the first Black man to play Major League Baseball and a former Army lieutenant, also found himself on the chopping block. Reports indicate his story has also been erased from the Department of Defense’s website.
As one ESPN columnist wrote, “The ghouls who did this should be ashamed. Jackie Robinson was the embodiment of an American hero. Fix this now.”
After more public outcry, the article on him was restored as of Wednesday.
Robinson isn’t the first Black icon once celebrated by the president to be swept aside in this DEI purge. A webpage honoring Medgar Evers, the civil rights activist and U.S. Army World War II veteran, was also removed from the Arlington Cemetery website.
These instances raise a troubling question: Does Trump even understand the consequences of his actions, despite their apparent lack of rationality? After all, during the 2017 opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, Trump called Evers a “great American hero.” Yet now, in 2025, it’s as if that acknowledgment never occurred. What’s changed?
The administration’s actions go beyond seemingly innocuous policy directives; they represent a deliberate attempt to whitewash history and then later rewrite it in the image of those who hold power. By attacking DEI initiatives, the president is erasing the significant achievements of people of color—achievements that have shaped America’s identity.
These examples underscore the administration’s blatant disregard for history and diversity. More than that, they reveal what happens when figures like Hegseth call for the eradication of DEI: the promise of a “merit-based, color-blind” society translates into one where historically marginalized groups are denied credit and upward mobility.
There’s an irony in this. While the administration seeks to diminish the accomplishments of underrepresented groups, people like Hegseth are rewarded despite their lack of relevant qualifications. He was given his position not for experience, but because he is a white man who is loyal to Trump.
Despite all the rhetoric about wanting a colorblind society, the administration’s actions speak louder than words. The real goal is clear: a whiter America.
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