How Republicans Just Teamed Up to Defeat a 'Malicious Compliance' Stunt on DEI

As soon as someone at the US Air Force made this decision, which was dutifully written up by the 'news' media,' Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida recognized what was going on. "President Donald Trump’s assault on federal diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives has claimed a new victim — the Tuskegee Airmen," a San Antonio Express-News story blared. "A video describing the exploits of the groundbreaking African American airmen, whose combat service during World War II became the stuff of legend, has been removed from the instructional curriculum for new recruits at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, the hub of Air Force basic training," it continued, with Trump's anti-DEI policies blamed for the decision. DeSantis knew exactly what he was seeing:

This is the Air Force indulging in political theatrics.

We’ve seen this “passive aggressive” performative nonsense in Florida where activists claim complying with anti-woke curriculum standards requires them to exclude basic history that everyone knows should be taught.

It’s… https://t.co/bufdQCuSze
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) January 26, 2025

"It's all an act," he tweeted. The episode harkened back to stunts like this one, as shared by a a host of left-wing misinformation accounts:

First they banned books in Florida. Then they fired teachers for posting photos and videos of the empty shelves.

Ron DeSantis really is terrible at this “free speech” thing.

Make sure this goes viral!pic.twitter.com/junwI7ec93
— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) February 17, 2023

Florida passed a law requiring that reading materials in schools be “free of pornography and prohibited materials harmful to minors, suited to student needs, and appropriate for the grade level and age group,” which led to shrieking about widespread "book bans" and "fascism." Viral images showed empty book shelves, as if books had been banned across the board, a wild misrepresentation. This is what compliance with fascism looks like was the deliberately deceitful and politically-motivated message. Yes, a Florida district parted ways with a substitute teacher for violating its social media policies on this front -- appropriately so, it seems to me. And some in the media tried to stir up controversy with nonsense like this:

The Washington Post has now “clarified” it’s original erroneous reporting on the Florida school books controversy, but couches the new language in such a way to preserve the original misimpression—that the new law will lead to felony prosecutions https://t.co/AmKaSA5AcE
— Rich Lowry (@RichLowry) January 31, 2023

.@FCN2go had a reporter at our press conference today that was caught on a hot mic with orders from their news team to "just run up to [the governor] off stage and yell questions" hoping to "make him uncomfortable."

Nonetheless, they had their question asked and answered by the… https://t.co/Z0ls9liuWX
— Bryan Griffin (@BryanDGriffin) February 14, 2023

This snapshot exposes how this sort of thing works: Republicans exert leadership on something, then resistance activists pretend to "comply" with the new rules, in a way that deliberately and misleadingly reflects poorly on the new rules. The 'news' media, meanwhile, misrepresents that those rules are, also in order to undermine them and those who made them. That's what happened with the Tuskegee Airmen posturing. The Trump administration ended DEI programs and mandates within the federal government, so someone decided that they would "obey" these new orders by barring historical instruction about American heroes who happen to have been black. This does not look like an honest mistake. It looks like a deliberate political manipulation, executed for the entire purpose of leaking it to journalists. As soon as this episode started to draw attention, Republicans in the legislative and executive branches intervened to put an immediate stop to it. Alabama Senator Katie Britt posted this message on social media:

I have no doubt Secretary Hegseth will correct and get to the bottom of the malicious compliance we’ve seen in recent days. President Trump celebrated and honored the Tuskegee Airmen during his first term, promoting legendary aviator Charles McGee to Brigadier General and pinning his stars in the Oval Office. In his second term, the Trump Administration will continue to deeply respect and elevate the Tuskegee Airmen’s legacy. Their history and their lessons will continue to be taught—because their legacy is one of excellence, of success, and of unquestionable merit. As the Pentagon under [Hegseth's] leadership restores its focus to lethality, there is no greater historical example of a highly skilled, valiant fighting force than the Tuskegee Airmen. These role models will continue to inspire the next generation of courageous, selfless American servicemembers.

The freshly-confirmed Defense Secretary, who quickly implemented anti-DEI policies, took prompt action to overrule the malicious compliance in question:

This has been immediately reversed. Thank you @SenKatieBritt. https://t.co/bmoJ4obPNL pic.twitter.com/fXCP3lisLN
— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) January 27, 2025

Ben Shapiro again exposed how this scheme worked, eliciting this plea to journalists from Tim Carney:

And this is also the oldest left-wing playbook.
1) GOP legislature bans porn in Middle School libraries.
2) Activist librarian removes Romeo & Juliet, blames porn ban.
3) Credulous media eats it up.
My journalist colleagues, please stop falling for this. https://t.co/S35t5A9tBc
— Tim Carney (@TPCarney) January 28, 2025

"The most deranged version of this was the hospitals that wouldn't help women after miscarriages so they could blame abortion bans," he added. Yes, that sort of life-endangering madness did occur, as a result of pro-abortion activism, masquerading as obedience to laws the activists opposed and wished to present in the worst light possible. If that meant ignoring the actual text of laws, and putting patients in danger, so be it; the higher 'good' of unfettered abortion was prioritized. Unfortunately, "falling for this" is a generous framing from Carney. In many cases, journos are active participants in the propaganda, gladly doing their part to misinform people in service of an ideological or partisan cause. The good news is that many conservatives are onto this game and are vigilant to aggressively discredit the attempted discreditors. The official or officials who made the call on the Tuskegee Airmen, then phoned up the local paper to brag about their (actually pro-DEI) anti-DEI 'compliance' should be investigated.