It’s not easy to lead an „ideological purification” campaign without ending up making a fool of yourself. The Trump administration seems to have taken this principle to an art form, managing to confuse terms and make monumental blunders, one more absurd than the other.
From deleting historical images simply because they included the word “gay” to denouncing serious medical studies as „experiments to make mice transgender,” Trump’s team has demonstrated that ignorance can lead to decisions that are at least ridiculous.
When censorship becomes absurd, Enola Gay becomes undesirable
The Trump administration's desire to erase any reference to diversity has led to a hallucinatory situation: the removal of thousands of photos just because the filename contained the word "gay."
A recipient of the Medal of Honor from World War II, the aircraft Enola Gay that dropped the atomic bomb on Japan, and the first women to graduate from Marine infantry training are among the tens of thousands of photos and online posts marked for deletion.
The action is part of the Department of Defense's efforts to remove diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)-related content, according to a database obtained by Associated Press. The B-29 bomber Enola Gay, which dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, a crucial page in world history, was censored not for its content, but for a word that apparently bothers the new political direction in Washington: gay.
Also, images of soldiers whose last name was "Gay" were deleted, and even photos of biologists studying fish, on the grounds that they were discussing sex differences!
"Transgender" Mice and Anti-Diversity Paranoia
Another iconic moment of the Trump administration came when the Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE) indignantly announced that the Biden government had spent 8 million dollars on "making mice transgender", as reported by Yahoo News.
In fact, the studies they referred to were important medical research using transgenic mice, genetically modified to study diseases such as cancer or asthma.
Through deliberate confusion or clumsy searching for any term containing "trans," Trump's team arrived at fantastical conclusions, which the president then used to support his attacks on diversity.