Agencies asked to scrub federal government websites to remove diversity-related content

The Trump administration plans to scrub some federal government websites in order to remove content contrary to the president’s thinking, administration officials told CBS News, and word spread quickly throughout Washington about actions that might be taken to alter the websites.

Some federal workers in D.C. misinterpreted a deadline cited in a Trump administration memo. Guidance had been sent to agencies instructing them to remove “gender ideology”-related content from their websites by 5 p.m. Friday. 

However, the administration doesn’t plan to shut down websites that have not complied, said McLaurine Pinover, communications director for the Office of Personnel Management, or OPM.

“The agency websites are still up and running,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavit told CBS News. 

Last week, OPM instructed all federal agencies to take steps to “take down all outward facing media (websites, social media accounts, etc.) of DEIA offices” by Jan. 22. 

President Trump, asked by reporters in the Oval Office Friday if websites would be shut down to remove diversity-related content, replied, “If they want to scrub the websites, that’s OK with me.”

Separately, Politico reported that Agriculture Department employees had been ordered to delete landing pages on climate change across agency websites, according to an internal email, and the directive had come from the USDA’s communications office.

Reuters first reported the directive to scrub mentions of gender and equity from their programs. 

CBS News confirmed that among the government agencies affected by OPM’s directives, multiple officials from health departments and nonprofits receiving federal funding also said they’ve been told to scrub mentions of gender and equity from their programs, in order to comply with Mr. Trump’s executive order this week.

It’s unclear how health departments and nonprofits would be able to comply with the sweeping instructions in many situations, especially given many health programs were explicitly designed to overcome equity gaps or diseases that have disproportionately affected transgender people.

One local health official said that Trump administration officials had said over the long term, grantees might also need to comply with the federal order banning pronouns in email signatures, which had initially been thought to extend only to federal staff.

contributed to this report.