US orders Federal DEI efforts to shut down Wednesday night

The Trump administration on Tuesday ordered officials overseeing diversity, equity and inclusion efforts across federal agencies to be placed on administrative leave and take steps to close their offices by 6 p.m. 17.00 Wednesday.

In a memo from the Office of Personnel Management, department and agency heads were ordered to purge such officials by placing all DEI employees on paid administrative leave, effective immediately, Wednesday at 7 p.m. 17. on the day Friday 31 January.

The memo also instructed agencies to remove any language or advertising about their DEI initiatives and to withdraw any pending documents or directives that would undermine the new orders. It also ordered agency leaders to inform DEI officials that their offices would be closed and that employees would be asked if there was any remaining effort that remained “in the guise” of coded or imprecise language.

The directive was a quick attempt to carry out elements of President Trump’s Day 1 executive order winding down federal diversity efforts. In a new order on Tuesday, Mr. Trump the private sector to follow the federal government’s lead and “end illegal DEI discrimination and preferences and comply with all federal civil rights laws.” His order also directed agencies to investigate companies’ and foundations’ compliance with those laws.

While the federal government has no jurisdiction over many private sector practices, it has the discretion to enforce its rules on heavily dependent private contractors and subcontractors who would be subject to the new rules. In anticipation of Mr. Trump’s accession will more companies, from Meta and McDonald’s, have rolled back their DEI initiatives.

The order Tuesday said DEI policies “undermine our national unity as they deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American values ​​of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement in favor of an illegal, corrosive, and destructive identity-based system of destruction.”

“However, in the case of a tragic case,” the order said, “the American people have witnessed firsthand the disastrous consequences of illegal, harmful discrimination that has prioritized how people were born over what they were capable of to do.”

Within hours of being sworn into office, Mr. Trump several orders signed by his predecessor, Joseph R. Biden Jr. The first was one that Mr. Biden had signed on his first day in office, titled “advancing racial equity and supporting underserved communities,” which ordered that federal agencies inject equity into virtually all policymaking during his tenure.

Mr. Biden prided himself on putting racial equity at the center of his policy-making in areas including the environment, infrastructure, the economy and health care.

The order goes to Mr. Biden’s position that a government committed to reversing decades of discrimination and neglect in underserved communities is a course correction for the nation rather than a threat to its future.

The executive actions fulfill Mr. Trump’s pledge to stamp out “radical” policies and “wasteful” spending on initiatives aimed at fighting systemic inequalities has angered conservatives who say diversity initiatives have been the answer to reversing discrimination and racial “preferences”. Mr. Trump’s order called for the elimination of programs with goals of “diversity,” “equality” and “fair decision-making.”

Mr. Trump reinforced those calls during his inaugural address to the nation when he took office, pledging to end efforts to “socially manipulate race and gender in all aspects of public and private life.”

“We want to create a society that is color blind and merit based,” declared Mr. Trump during the speech.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that the new directives should “come as no surprise.”

“President Trump campaigned to end the scourge of DEI from our federal government and return America to a merit-based society where people are hired based on their skills, not the color of their skin,” the statement read. “This is another victory for Americans of all races, religions and creeds. Promises made, promises kept.”

Zolan Kanno-Youngs contributed with reporting.