JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground

HTML

<textarea class="form-control template_data" id="content" name="content" rows="8" cols="80"></textarea>


    <script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.1.0/jquery.min.js"></script>

JavaScript

var my_text = "From: Foo Bar <foo@bar.com> \
Date: Sat, Apr 8, 2017 at 2:29 PM \
Subject: Fwd: joesmith@mail.com Completed an Assessment \
To: Test <my@test.org>, Jeremy Kohler <tester@guy.com>";

var regEx = '/<|>/g';
my_text.replace(regEx, "*");
my_text = my_text.replace("&lt;", "*");
my_text = my_text.replace("&gt;", "*");
$('#content').append(my_text);
alert(my_text);