Trump orders federal DEI roles ended, staff on leave immediately

• Federal workers in DEI roles will be placed on leave no later than 17.00 Wednesday.
• The move follows President Donald Trump’s executive order ending DEI roles and initiatives.
• It’s part of a broader right-wing backlash against DEI, which Trump says is discriminatory.

Federal workers in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) roles are being placed on paid leave as DEI initiatives, offices, and programs are wound down under the Trump administration.

CBS News obtained an Office of Personnel Management memorandum stating that all federal employees in DEI roles were required to be on leave by 5 p.m. 17.00 Wednesday.

Agencies are instructed to inform those at DEI offices that their leave would be “immediately,” it said, as the agency works to close DEI initiatives.

The move follows an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on his first day in office, which declared the termination of DEI’s “mandates, policies, programs, preferences and activities” in the federal government.

The order requires agency, department and commission heads to work with the attorney general and the directors of the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management to act within 60 days.

In addition to the termination of DEI roles, the order also called for the termination of “environmental justice” offices.

Karoline Leavitt, assistant to the president and White House press secretary, confirmed the memorandum’s authenticity in an X post.

She wrote: “To any journalist asking about this: I can happily confirm!”

The memo called on department heads and agencies to immediately remove all “external media,” including social media and websites, from DEI offices and cancel any related training.

It also said the heads of departments and agencies must report to the Office of Personnel Management by noon Thursday detailing all steps taken to implement the memo, providing lists of DEI offices, personnel and any related contracts from election day 2024.

In addition, the department and agency heads are being asked to submit plans to OPM by the end of the month for reducing the management force within the DEI offices.

Trump’s executive order accused former President Joe Biden’s administration of forcing “immoral discriminatory programs” into “virtually every” aspect of the federal government.

The move is part of a wider effort to press down on DEI, which has increasingly come under criticism in conservative circles.

On Tuesday, the White House issued a separate presidential order ending all DEI-based hiring at the Federal Aviation Authority, including those that consider race, gender or disability.

Trump said in his inauguration speech Monday, “We will create a society that is colorblind and merit-based.”

He also announced that it would become official American policy that there are “only two sexes: male and female.”