DOD says it ‘mistakenly removed’ Jackie Robinson, other content from website amid DEI purge
Jackie Robinson, in military uniform, signs a contract with the minor league club in Montreal, a farm team for the Brooklyn Dodgers. (Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — The Pentagon said Wednesday that in “rare cases” it may have deliberately or mistakenly removed some webpages in efforts to remove diversity, equity and inclusion content after a tribute to Jackie Robinson’s Army service was suddenly scrubbed from a Department of Defense’s website.
A DOD official told ABC News that the Robinson webpage, among other content recently removed from Pentagon websites, was “mistakenly removed” due to the search terms used to scrub DEI terms from platforms.
The official said Robinson’s page and others that were unpublished, including content honoring the Tuskegee Airmen, the Enola Gay, the Navajo Code Talkers, history-making female fighter pilots and the Marines at Iwo Jima, would be republished.
Pentagon press secretary John Ullyot said in a statement to ABC News that “everyone at the Defense Department loves Jackie Robinson” as well as others whose webpages were removed and will be restored.
Ullyot added that the DOD salutes many of these military heroes and does “not view or highlight them through the prism of immutable characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, or sex.”
“We do so only by recognizing their patriotism and dedication to the warfighting mission like ever other American who has worn the uniform,” Ullyot said, saying DEI initiatives “divide the force.”
“We are pleased by the rapid compliance across the Department with the directive removing DEI content from all platforms,” he added. “In the rare cases that content is removed — either deliberately or by mistake — that is out of the clearly outlined scope of the directive, we instruct the components and they correct the content so it recognizes our heroes for their dedicated service alongside their fellow Americans, period.”
It was not clear which terms in the Robinson story, published by DOD News, led to its removal.
Ahead of the DOD saying the webpage removal was a mistake, Jackie Robinson Foundation Chairman Leonard Coleman, the former National League president, told ESPN that Robinson “represents America at its best.”
“Removing an icon and Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient from government websites represents America at its worst,” he added.
According to an online archive of the story, which was a part of a series on “Sports Heroes Who Served,” Robinson was “assigned to a segregated Army cavalry unit in Fort Riley, Kansas,” after being drafted in 1942.
It recounted Robinson’s arrest in 1944 after an Army bus driver ordered Robinson “to move to the back of the bus, but Robinson refused.”
The story, which the Pentagon said would be restored, noted that Robinson in his baseball career “did experience a lot of hatred from fans and other baseball players who felt that Black players should not be allowed in Major League Baseball.”
Still, in a statement given to ABC News, Ullyot defended the removal of DEI from the DOD, saying it is “a form of Woke cultural Marxism.”
“As Secretary Hegseth has said, DEI is dead at the Defense Department,” Ullyot said.
(Official State Department photo by Freddie Everett)
(WASHINGTON) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to embark on his first diplomatic mission abroad since being confirmed to his post, visiting five countries in Central and South America over the first week of February.
During the trip, Rubio is expected to reinforce the Trump administration’s immigration priorities with leaders in the region, according to a senior official, who said the secretary is also planning to address Beijing’s influence during several of the stops.
The State Department is also billing Rubio’s trip as historic — saying his six-day journey to Panama, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic marks the first time a U.S. secretary of state has opted to make his or her first official visit to Latin America in over 100 years.
“This is where we live”
In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, Rubio said the trip is part of a realignment of American diplomatic priorities.
“For many reasons, U.S. foreign policy has long focused on other regions while overlooking our own. As a result, we’ve let problems fester, missed opportunities and neglected partners,” he said. “That ends now.”
State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said the region’s proximity to the United States was an important factor in selecting it for Rubio’s first trip.
“The fact of the matter is, this is where we live. This is who we are,” she said. “This is about not just wanting to have new partnerships — but that’s always good — but the nature of what it means to have an extended relationship with the people closest to you.”
Those relationships are vital for fulfilling the Trump administration’s border security and deportation plans, Rubio noted.
“Diplomacy’s role in this effort is central. We need to work with countries of origin to halt and deter further migrant flows, and to accept the return of their citizens present in the U.S. illegally,” he said.
Cooperation and coercion
However, the countries on his itinerary have largely been very cooperative with the administration so far, as other countries in the region Rubio will skip over remain hesitant to comply.
Guatemala, for instance, has accepted hundreds of migrants brought to the country on military planes since Trump took office, and the country’s leadership has signaled it is open to accepting deportees of other nationalities.
Meanwhile, Mexico, which is traditionally the U.S.’ most important partner in handling illegal immigration, has been much more tentative.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum originally said the country wouldn’t accept migrants from other countries, but she quietly reversed course in late January when she revealed Mexico had accepted over 4,000 deportees and that while “the large majority” was Mexican, others were not.
Mexico has also so far refused requests from the U.S. to allow military flights carrying deportees to land in the country, according to officials from both countries.
Honduras has posed another challenge to the administration’s agenda. According to data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the end of 2024, Hondurans made up the largest share of the population in the deportation pipeline. But ahead of Trump’s inauguration, the president of Honduras threatened to expel members of the U.S. military stationed in the country in response to mass deportations of Honduran nationals.
However, Honduran authorities have signaled the country’s position may be softening. The country’s foreign minister wrote on X that the government is in the process of launching a program to support returning migrants called “Brother, Come Home.”
The Trump administration has also had some early success in overtly pressuring countries to acquiesce. His threatened trade war against Colombia prompted its government to allow military deportation flights to land on its territory.
“It sends a message that this administration, President Trump, Secretary Rubio — they mean what they say,” said Mauricio Claver-Carone, special envoy for Latin America.
Claver-Carone also suggested the Trump administration would use gentler diplomatic tactics as well, saying that during Rubio’s trip, he will attempt to lay the groundwork for a program to repatriate migrants travelling through Central America with the government of Costa Rica.
He also addressed Richard Grenell’s visit to Venezuela to meet with strongman Nicolas Maduro on Friday.
“President Trump expects Nicolas Maduro to take back all of the Venezuelan criminals and gang members that have been exported to United States and to do so unequivocally and without condition,” he said, adding that Grenell, the envoy for special missions, will also urge Maduro to release American hostages held in the country.
A “direct threat” from China
Beyond immigration, Claver-Carone said Beijing’s growing influence in Central America will also be top of mind for Rubio through much of the trip, but it is expected to take center stage during the secretary’s first stop in Panama.
Trump has lodged a litany of complaints related to Panama’s operation of the canal that cuts through the country — claiming that American vessels are overcharged, lamenting that the U.S. ceded control of the vital waterway in the first place and promising “we’re taking it back” during his inaugural address.
Rubio has taken a more measured approach in discussing the Panama Canal while also underscoring that what he says are Trump’s legitimate concerns about the waterway — especially when it comes to companies controlled by Beijing located on each end of it.
“If the government in China in a conflict tells them to shut down the Panama Canal, they will have to,” Rubio said in an interview on Thursday. “That is a direct threat.”
Rubio continued to say it is a dynamic that cannot be allowed to continue.
“It is not in the national interest of the United States to have a canal we paid for and we built used as a leverage and a weapon against us. That can’t happen,” he said.
But ahead of Rubio’s visit, Panama President Jose Raul Mulino said handing back control of the canal isn’t a thought he can entertain.
“It’s impossible,” Mulino said during a press conference on Thursday. “I cannot negotiate, and much less open, a process of negotiation over the canal. That’s sealed. The canal belongs to Panama.”
(WASHINGTON) — In response to President Donald Trump’s executive order banning diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, the Pentagon’s intelligence agency has paused special event programs and related events, including for Juneteenth, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Black History Month, Holocaust Days of Remembrance and Pride Month, according to a memo obtained by ABC News.
Despite being on the list of the Defense Intelligence Agency’s paused events and activities, the memo clarified that Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth will remain federal holidays.
“The Defense Intelligence Agency is working with the Department of Defense to fully implement all Executive Orders and Administration guidance in a timely manner,” Lt. Cmdr. Seth Clarke, DIA spokesman, told ABC News in a statement when asked about the memo. “As we receive additional guidance, we will continue to update our internal guidance.”
A copy of the memo began circulating on social media Wednesday morning.
The affected events, per the memo, which is dated Jan. 28, 2025, include: Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday, Black History Month, Women’s History Month, Holocaust Day and Days of Remembrance, Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Pride, Juneteenth, Women’s Equality Day, National Hispanic Heritage Month, National Disability Employment Awareness Month and National American Indian Heritage Month.
The pause comes as Black History Month is set to begin on Saturday, Feb. 1.
Trump has targeted DEI initiatives in a series of executive orders in his first week in office, with the White House saying that “DEI creates and then amplifies prejudicial hostility and exacerbates interpersonal conflict.”
The memo also noted that the DIA would “pause Agency Resource Groups, Affinity Groups, and Employee Networking Groups, effective immediately and until further notice.”
(WASHINGTON) — During her first full day as director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard will travel to Germany for the Munich Security Conference, where she will hold 30 bilateral meetings with counterparts, including key U.S. allies Great Britain, France, Australia, and Germany, Alexa Henning, deputy DNI for strategy and communications told ABC News.
Gabbard, who was to be sworn into office Wednesday afternoon shortly after the Senate voted to confirm her, is expected to deliver remarks at a luncheon during the conference. She will be joined by Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who are also attending.
During her confirmation hearing in January, Gabbard previewed her priorities as head of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), stating that President Donald Trump’s reelection was aimed at breaking the cycle of failure within the intelligence community, ending “the weaponization/politicization of the IC and begin to restore trust in those who have been charged with the critical task of securing our nation.”
To assess the global threat environment, Gabbard will identify “where gaps in our intelligence exist, integrate intelligence elements, increase information-sharing, and ensure unbiased, apolitical, objective collection and analysis to support the president and policymakers’ decision-making,” according to a list of priorities obtained by ABC News.
Her priorities also emphasize the need to end polarization of the intelligence community, stating that her goal is to “ensure clear mission focus to the IC on its core mission of unbiased, apolitical collection and analysis of intelligence to secure our nation.”
The DNI also stresses that rebuilding “trust through transparency and accountability,” is a national security imperative, according to the document.
Like many government agencies in the second Trump administration, Gabbard’s focus is on reforming ODNI, which was created in response to intelligence failures leading up to 9/11. She aims to “assess and address efficiency, redundancy, and effectiveness across ODNI to ensure focus of personnel and resources is focused on our core mission of national security,” according to the document.
During the confirmation process, the former Hawaii congresswoman met with more than half of the Senate over two months. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle expressed frustration with recent intelligence failures, according to sources with knowledge of proceedings. Gabbard continued meeting with senators on Capitol Hill up until the eve of her nomination.
Gabbard was grilled by lawmakers from both sides of the aisle about her reversal on a key surveillance tool, Section 702 of the FISA, and her refusal to label former National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden a traitor during contentious confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill last month.
The Senate confirmed her nomination, 52-48, on Wednesday. Gabbard, a former Democrat turned Republican, received no Democratic votes. The only Republican to vote against her was former Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who said, “The nation should not have to worry that the intelligence assessments the President receives are tainted by a Director of National Intelligence with a history of alarming lapses in judgment.”
Another key “no” vote came from independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, whose presidential campaign Gabbard endorsed in 2016 after stepping down as a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee.
According to the document obtained by ABC News, Gabbard plans to work with lawmakers to ensure responsiveness to their requests for intelligence. Issues of concern include the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack in Israel; the 2024 Syrian rebel takeover; failures to identify the source of the COVID-19 outbreak, Anomalous Health Incidents (AHIs), also known as “Havana Syndrome,” Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) — objects in air, sea or space that defy scientific explanation — drones and more.
Gabbard, a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, has served 22 years in the Army National Guard and Reserve, including deployments to Iraq, Kuwait, and Djibouti. She is the first female DNI to have served in the military and plans to continue to serve in the Reserve, which ODNI regulations permit.
She plans to use her experience in the military and in Congress to bring “fresh eyes” as she assumes the role of America’s top intelligence official, according to the document.
