The Army has launched an investigation after a drill sergeant posted a video showing soldiers being hazed beneath a MAGA flag, which runs afoul of multiple military regulations prohibiting partisan political activity in uniform and on federal property.

Staff Sgt. Thomas Mitchell on Friday uploaded the video to TikTok, showing a group of trainees performing push-ups and burpees in full body armor under a banner that read, "This Is Ultra MAGA Country." The video was later deleted. But shortly after, Mitchell posted a second video showing the same exercising in the same location, this time with the flag removed. The caption: "Cry about it."

"The U.S. Army is an apolitical organization," Jennifer Gunn, a service spokesperson, said in a statement. "Displaying partisan political materials in government facilities, including training areas, is prohibited under Army regulation. We will investigate this matter and address it in accordance with established policies to ensure compliance with standards of conduct and to maintain an environment free from political influence."

Children's biographies of trailblazing transgender public figures. An award-winning novel reflecting on what it is like to be Black in America. A series of graphic novels about the love story between a teenage gay couple.

Those are some of the 596 books that have been pulled from shelves in the Defense Department schools that serve military children as part of the Trump administration's broader effort to censor LGBTQ+ and racial issues from official government materials.

The full list was released by the order of a federal judge as part of the American Civil Liberties Union's lawsuit against the Department of Defense Education Activity's implementation of President Donald Trump's anti-diversity and anti-LGBTQ+ executive orders.
"The amount of titles banned by the Trump administration is astonishing, and the list provided by DoDEA perfectly illustrates how the administration is putting politics above pedagogy," Emerson Sykes, senior staff attorney with the ACLU's Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, said in an emailed statement to Military.com. "Kids on military bases have the same First Amendment rights that we all enjoy, and that their parents swore an oath to defend. Yet the administration has forced schools to remove titles like 'A Is for Activist' and 'Julian Is a Mermaid' that reflect the vibrant and diverse world we live in. All 596 of these books must be returned to shelves immediately."

"A Is for Activist" is an ABC board book about progressive terms and values, while "Julian Is a Mermaid" is a picture book about a boy who wants to become a mermaid.

Among his first acts in office, Trump ordered every federal agency to get rid of all policies and materials related to "gender ideology," a right-wing term for being transgender, and the ill-defined concept of "diversity, equity and inclusion."