A German researcher captured the contents of the White House’s “DEI.gov” during a brief period when it was not password protected.
The capture shows that the site contains a list of vague, alleged government-funded tasks and their costs, without sources or context, like “$1.3 million to Arab and Jewish photographers," “$1.5 million for ‘art for inclusion of people with disabilities,’” and "$3.4 million for Malaysian drug-fueled gay sex app.” DEI.gov redirects to waste.gov and is currently inaccessible without a password; Elon Musk told reporters on Tuesday that his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is “trying to be as transparent as possible.”
The researcher is Henrik Schönemann, a historian who started the Safeguarding Research & Culture archivalist project, posted screenshots on Mastodon showing the contents. Schönemann also shared the specific site scrapes that he was able to capture, which showed the contents of the site. He told 404 Media he set up a change detection app using PikaPods, and is monitoring changes across hundreds of government websites. When the dei.gov and waste.gov sites were registered 10 days ago, he started tracking them, too.
Before the site administrators added a Wordpress template to the pages, the list was online at those URLs. This list was only online for a maximum of 30 minutes, starting around 4:50 p.m. EST; by 5:23 p.m. on February 11, it was gone from public view, according to the snapshots Schönemann’s app captured.
According to the screenshots provided by Schönemann, the list includes (all of the following are direct quotes):
- $78,000 to Palestinian activist group whose chairman was photographed attending an anniversary event celebrating the founding of the Popular Front for the Liberation of the Palestine terrorist group
- $1 Million for foreign DEI programs, including ‘indigenous language technology’ in Guatemala, per non-public funding docs reviewed by WFB
- $5 million for effort to treat eating disorders by “affirming” LGBTQIA+ patients’ sexual orientation and gender claims
- Up to $3 million to defund the police advocacy group to pursue “climate justice” for convicts
- Funded performances of play “Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes,” in which God is bisexual and communists are good, in North Macedonia
- Disbursed $15,000 to “queer” Muslim writers in India
- Shelled out tens of thousands to create army of 2,500 LGBTQI+ allies
- Up to $10 million worth of USAID-funded meals went to al Qaeda-linked terrorist group the Nusra Front
- $500,000 to group that “empowers women” in attempt to solve sectarian violence in Israel just ten days before Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks
- $4.67 million to EcoHealth Alliance – one of the key NGOs funding bat virus research at Wuhan Institute of Virology — in late 2021. Later refused to answer key questions about the funding.
- $7.9 million to a project that would teach Sri Lankan journalists to avoid “binary-gendered language”
- $1.3 million to Arab and Jewish photographers
- $1.5 million for “art for inclusion of people with disabilities”
- $2 million to promote “LGBT equality through entrepreneurship…in developing Latin American countries.”
- Education Week: “Biden Administration Cites 1619 Project as Inspiration in History Grant Proposal”
- VA took at least a dozen actions aimed at bolstering DEI during the Biden-Harris administration while the number of homeless veterans increased and the amount of claims in the VA’s backlog grew from ~211,000 to ~378,000
- NASA has allocated roughly $10 million to grants advancing DEI and “environmental justice” since 2020
- Following President Trump’s executive order on DEI at federal agencies, the ATF “quietly changing the job title of its former diversity officer… to ‘senior executive’ with the ATF.
- The Department of Labor requested additional funding in 2023 for “The Chief Evaluation Office for a new rigorous interagency evaluation of actions aimed at improving Diversity, Equity, Inclusivity, and Accessibility across the federal workforce,” more than $6.5 million “to restore employee benefits programs that will advance equity by specifically addressing how opportunities can be expanded for underserved communities and vulnerable populations,” and $5 million “to evaluate actions aimed at improving diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) within the federal workforce.”
- Fox Business: “FOX Business’ ‘Trouble in the Skies,’ a six month investigation of the FAA’s new hiring practices, uncovered changes that may put the nation’s flying public at risk as well as allegations that the newest air traffic control recruits had access to answers on a key test that helped them gain jobs with the FAA…Also uncovered was an FAA effort to promote diversity that discarded 3000 qualified college graduates with degrees in air traffic control despite their following FAA procedure and obtaining FAA accredited degrees.”
Schönemann told 404 Media he wanted to share a sentiment alongside his find: “People all around the world care, you are not alone. And: #TransRights.”
Earlier this week, we reported that the Trump administration had set up a website called waste.gov, which was live on the internet with a sample page from a default WordPress template. Both DEI.gov and waste.gov were created at the same time, according to Reuters, and DEI.gov was recently set up to redirect to waste.gov. After our reporting, both websites were put behind a password wall.
