Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth released the "Restoring America's Fighting Force" memo, establishing a task force charged with abolishing all diversity, equity, and inclusion offices and programs across the Department of Defense. The memo directed that military promotions and service academy admissions would no longer consider race or sex, mandating "merit-based, color-blind" policies throughout the armed forces.
The task force was ordered to deliver a preliminary progress report by March 1 and a final report by June 2025. By April 2025, a Government Accountability Office report confirmed the Pentagon had eliminated or restructured all 188 DEI-related positions -- 25 held by military personnel and 16 by civilians among the final 41 positions cut. The purge extended beyond personnel to content: the Pentagon scrubbed DEI-related material from websites, renamed offices, and removed historical references to diversity initiatives. The GAO found no DEI-related jobs were expected to remain in the U.S. military after April 2025.