President Donald Trump has ordered a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs that could include everything from anti-bias training to funding for minority farmers and homeowners. File
| Photo Credit: AP
President Donald Trump’s administration is directing that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion staff be put on paid leave, and that agencies develop plans to lay them off, according to a memo Tuesday (January 21, 2025) from the Office of Personnel Management.
The memo follows an executive order Mr. Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs that could touch on everything from anti-bias training to funding for minority farmers and homeowners.
The memo direct agencies to place Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) office staffers on paid leave by 5 p.m. from Wednesday (January 22, 2025) and take down all public DEI-focused webpages by the same deadline. Several federal departments had removed the webpages even before the memorandum.
By Thursday (January 23, 2025), federal agencies are directed to compile a list of federal DEI offices and workers as of Election Day. By next Friday (January 31, 2025) they are expected to develop a list to execute a “reduction-in-force action” against those federal workers.
The move comes after Monday’s (January 20, 2025) executive order accused former President Joe Biden of forcing “discrimination” programs into “virtually all aspects of the federal government” through “diversity, equity and inclusion” programs, known as DEI.
That step is the first salvo in an aggressive campaign to upend DEI efforts nationwide, including leveraging the Justice Department and other agencies to investigate private companies pursuing training and hiring practices that conservative critics consider discriminatory against non-minority groups such as white men.
The executive order picks up where Trump’s first administration left off: One of Trump’s final acts during his first term was an executive order banning federal agency contractors and recipients of federal funding from conducting anti-bias training that addressed concepts like systemic racism. Biden promptly rescinded that order on his first day in office and issued a pair of executive orders — now rescinded — outlining a plan to promote DEI throughout the federal government.
While many changes may take months or even years to implement, Trump’s new anti-DEI agenda is more aggressive than his first and comes amid far more amenable terrain in the corporate world. Prominent companies from Walmart to Facebook have already scaled back or ended some of their diversity practices in response to Mr. Trump’s election and conservative-backed lawsuits against them.
Published – January 22, 2025 08:24 am IST
