An article about Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson’s U.S. Army service was restored on a Department of Defense website on Wednesday. The article was previously removed as part of President Donald Trump’s administration’s commitment to eradicating government content linked to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The original story’s URL contained the letters “dei.” However, when the article returned online on Wednesday afternoon, those letters were removed from the URL.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan initially reported about the article’s removal from the DOD website in a post on X late Tuesday night.
“This used to be the URL for a story on the @DeptofDefense website about Jackie Robinson’s time in the Army,” Passan posted. “The story has been removed. The ghouls who did this should be ashamed. Jackie Robinson was the embodiment of an American hero. Fix this now.”
Trump issued the executive order “Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing” with the goal of removing all DEI-related content from the government. The directive was issued on his first day in office. As specified in the executive order, all things related to DEI were to be “terminated and removed.”
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth issued a release on Jan. 31, which provided direction on how the Defense Department would proceed with the DEI removal process.
“Our unity and purpose are instrumental to meeting the Department’s warfighting mission,” Hegseth said. “Efforts to divide the force — to put one group ahead of another — erode camaraderie and threaten mission execution.”
“Installations, units, and offices are encouraged to celebrate the valor and success of military heroes of all races, genders, and backgrounds as we restore our warrior culture and ethos,” Hegseth added. “We are proud of our warriors and their history, but we will focus on the character of their service instead of their immutable characteristics.”
The Defense Department issued multiple comments on Wednesday regarding the controversy surrounding the Jackie Robinson article. First, Pentagon press secretary John Ullyot reiterated Hegseth’s stance that “DEI is dead at the Defense Department” and was “pleased by the rapid compliance” to remove all articles linked with DEI content, ESPN reported.
Later, Ullyot released another statement related to the article’s removal. It explained the rationale behind the decision while acknowledging Robinson’s importance. It stressed the DOD’s commitment to recognizing the “patriotism and dedication to the warfighting mission” of all Americans who served.
“Everyone at the Defense Department loves Jackie Robinson, as well as the Navajo Code Talkers, the Tuskegee Airmen, the Marines at Iwo Jima and so many others — we salute them for their strong and in many cases heroic service to our country, full stop,” read the second statement. “We do 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 every other American who has worn the uniform.”
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Ullyot mentioned that mistakes might happen sometimes in the conversion process, but any errors would be quickly corrected.
“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.”