PHOENIX (AP) — The Pentagon restored some webpages highlighting the crucial wartime contributions of Navajo Code Talkers and other Native American veterans on Wednesday, days after tribes condemned the action.
The initial removal was part of a sweep of any military content that promoted diversity, equity and inclusion, or commonly referred to as DEI. Following President Donald Trump’s broader executive order ending the federal government’s DEI programs, the Defense Department deleted thousands of pages honoring contributions by women and minority groups. Department officials say the Navajo Code Talker material was erroneously erased.
“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,” Pentagon press secretary John Ullyot said in a statement.
Several webpages on the Code Talkers landed on a “404 - Page not found” message Tuesday. Some were back up Wednesday — although any that also mention Native American Heritage Month remain down. Thousands of other pages deleted in the DEI purge are still offline.
White House officials informed the Navajo Nation that an artificial intelligence-powered automated review process looking for content with DEI initiatives led to the elimination of anything mentioning “Navajo," according to a statement from Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren.
Nygren, who sent a letter to the Defense Department requesting clarity on the issue, said he's pleased by the resolution.
“I want to assure the Navajo people that we remain in close communication with federal officials to ensure the legacy of our cherished Navajo Code Talkers is never erased from American and Navajo history,” Nygren said.
He also pointed out the 574 federally recognized tribes across the U.S. are sovereign nations and not defined by DEI classifications, a stance broadly supported by other Native American leaders who also sent letters to the Trump administration.
The U.S. Marine Corps initially recruited 29 Navajo men to develop a code based on the unwritten Navajo language in World War II. Using Navajo words for red soil, war chief, clan, braided hair, beads, ant and hummingbird, for example, they came up with a glossary of more than 200 terms, later expanded, and an alphabet. To convey the word “send,” Code Talkers would say the Navajo words for “sheep, eyes, nose and deer.”
Hundreds of Navajos followed in their footsteps, sending thousands of messages without error on Japanese troop movements, battlefield tactics and other communications crucial to the war’s ultimate outcome. The code stumped Japanese military cryptologists.
The Code Talkers participated in all assaults the Marines led in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945 and are credited with helping the U.S. win the war. Hundreds of Native Americans from more than 20 tribes also served as code talkers during World War I and World War II, according to the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. Among them were Choctaw, Cherokee, Osage, Chippewa and Hopi speakers.
Among those alarmed to hear of the missing Navajo Code Talker webpages was Peter MacDonald, 96. He and Thomas H. Begay are the only two Navajo Code Talkers still living today.
“That code became a very valuable weapon and not only saved hundreds of thousands of soldiers, but it also helped win the war in the Pacific,” MacDonald said by phone from his home in Tuba City in the Arizona portion of the Navajo Nation. "And it has absolutely nothing to do with DEI."
A Republican who voted for Trump, MacDonald said he thinks the current administration needs to better walk the line between getting rid of DEI and ignoring history.
“That’s why I’m very concerned that communication from the Pentagon down to the various military units should be taught or learn that this information is history, and you don’t want to hide history,” MacDonald said.
The Defense Department has had to issue reassurances that it is not omitting historic achievements by servicemen and women of color. Besides the Code Talkers, the agency also on Wednesday restored a webpage describing baseball and civil rights icon Jackie Robinson’s military service after it was missing earlier in the day. Last week, pages honoring a Black Medal of Honor winner and Japanese American service members were also restored.
“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,” Ullyot said. “We do not view or highlight them through the prism of immutable characteristics, such as race, ethnicity or sex.”
Michael Smith, whose father, Samuel “Jesse” Smith Sr., was a Navajo Code Talker, questioned why these pages were removed at all.
“I don’t know how taking Navajo Code Talkers off the Department of Defense website is saving the United States any money because that’s not consistent with the president’s order,” said Smith, who helps organize annual celebrations of the Code Talkers.
Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis of the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona also expressed disappointment, claiming there was missing content relating to all Native American veterans, including Ira Hayes. Hayes was an enrolled member of the tribe and one of six Marines featured in an iconic 1945 Associated Press photograph of U.S. forces raising an American flag during the Battle of Iwo Jima.
Even with some being reposted, he remains worried web content removal is “the tip of the iceberg.”
“The way it looks in the (executive) order, this language is skewed and made to sound like the diversity programs are the ones that are unethical," Smith said.
FILE - Navajo Code Talker Thomas Begay, left, shakes hands with Ron Enderle, right, a U.S. Marine veteran from the Korean War era, at the Arizona State Navajo Code Talkers Day ceremony, Aug. 14, 2022, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)
FILE - Navajo Code Talker Thomas Begay salutes during the national anthem at the Arizona State Navajo Code Talkers Day celebration, Aug. 14, 2022, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)
FILE - President Donald Trump meets with Navajo Code Talkers, Fleming Begaye Sr., seated and Thomas Begay, center, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Nov. 27, 2017. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
FILE - WWII veteran and Navajo Code Talker Peter MacDonald Sr. is photographed at his home on the Navajo reservation in Tuba City, Ariz., April 28, 2020. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order Thursday “aimed at eliminating” the U.S. Education Department, advancing a campaign promise to eliminate an agency that’s been a longtime target of conservatives. The Justice Department is resisting a federal judge’s demand for more information about flights that took deportees to El Salvador, arguing that the court should end its “continued intrusions” into executive branch authority. A different federal judge allowed Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to remain in control of the U.S. Institute of Peace, an independent nonprofit created by Congress. And the Trump administration has suspended approximately $175 million in funding for the University of Pennsylvania over a transgender swimmer who last competed for the school in 2022.
Here's the latest:
The equity goal of the Education Department, which was created by Congress in 1979, emerged partly from the anti-poverty and civil rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s.
But as the Trump administration moves to dismantle it, officials have suggested other agencies could take over its major responsibilities: civil rights enforcement to the Justice Department, perhaps; student loans to Treasury or Commerce; oversight of student disability rights to Health and Human Services.
Advocates are worried about what could happen with a more lofty part of the department’s mission — promoting equal access for students in an American education system that is fundamentally unequal. Without the department, they’re concerned that the federal government would not look out in the same way for poor students, those still learning English, disabled students and racial and ethnic minorities.
▶ Read more about the impact of this dismantling of the Education Department
Badar Khan Suri was determined to be deportable for “spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media,” Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said late Wednesday on X.
A Georgetown statement says the Indian national was “duly granted a visa to enter the United States to continue his doctoral research on peacebuilding in Iraq and Afghanistan” while studying at the university’s center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.
“We are not aware of him engaging in any illegal activity, and we have not received a reason for his detention,” the school said. “We support our community members’ rights to free and open inquiry, deliberation and debate, even if the underlying ideas may be difficult, controversial or objectionable. We expect the legal system to adjudicate this case fairly.”
▶ Read more on the Georgetown scholar’s detention
That’s according to the Labor Department’s latest tally of jobless claims filings, showing they rose by 2,000 last week to slightly less than the 224,000 new applications analysts forecast.
The total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits for the week of March 8 rose by 33,000 to 1.89 million.
Economists don’t expect the Trump administration’s federal workforce layoffs to appear until the March jobs report.
▶ Read more about unemployment and layoff numbers
Across wine country in France, Italy and Spain one number is top of mind: 200%.
That’s because last week Trump threatened a tariff of that amount on European wine, Champagne and other spirits if the European Union went ahead with retaliatory tariffs on some U.S. products. The top wine producers in Europe could face crippling costs that would hit smaller wineries especially hard.
Europe’s wine industry is the latest to find itself in the crosshairs of a possible trade spat with the U.S.
Italy, France and Spain are among the top five exporters of wine to the United States. Trump made his threat to Europe’s alcohol industry after the European Union announced a 50% tax on American whiskey expected to take effect on April 1. That duty was unveiled in response to the Trump administration’s tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum.
▶ Read more about the possible tax on foreign liquor
The White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity before the announcement, said Trump plans to sign the order on Thursday.
Finalizing the elimination of the Department of Education would require an act of Congress.
But a White House fact sheet said the order would direct Education Secretary Linda McMahon “to take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure (of) the Department of Education and return education authority to the States, while continuing to ensure the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.”
Associated Press reporter Chris Megerian contributed.
In an effort to limit fraudulent claims, the Social Security Administration will impose tighter identity-proofing measures — which will require millions of recipients and applicants to visit agency field offices rather than interact with the agency over the phone.
Beginning March 31st, people will no longer be able to verify their identity to the SSA over the phone and those who cannot properly verify their identity over the agency’s “my Social Security” online service, will be required to visit an agency field office in person to complete the verification process, agency leadership told reporters Tuesday.
The change will apply to new Social Security applicants and existing recipients who want to change their direct deposit information.
Retiree advocates warn that the change will negatively impact older Americans in rural areas, including those with disabilities, mobility limitations, those who live far from SSA offices and have limited internet access.
▶ Read more about changes being made to social security
Maine’s education office is being ordered to ban transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports or face federal prosecution, an escalation in Trump’s threats to pull federal money from states and schools over transgender athletes.
The Education Department on Wednesday said an investigation concluded Maine’s education office violated the Title IX antidiscrimination law by allowing transgender girls to compete on girls’ sports teams and use girls’ facilities. It’s giving Maine 10 days to comply with a list of demands or face Justice Department prosecution.
The federal investigation was opened Feb. 21, just hours after Trump and the state’s Democratic governor, Janet Mills, clashed over the issue at a meeting of governors at the White House. During the heated exchange, Mills told the Republican president, “We’ll see you in court.”
▶ Read more about the investigation into Maine’s Department of Education
People gather to protest against Israel and President Donald Trump in front of a Trump-branded building Wednesday, March 19, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller speaks to reporters at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, March 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
People rally at the University of California, Berkeley campus to protest the Trump administration Wednesday, March 19, 2025, in Berkeley, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, March 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
