Trump directs all federal diversity, equality and inclusion workers on leave

WASHINGTON (AP) — Pres Donald Trump ‘s administration moved Tuesday to end affirmative action in federal contracts, directing that all federal diversity, equality and inclusion staff are put on paid leave and ultimately fired.

The measures follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering one thorough 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. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and insisted on restoring strictly “merit-based” hiring.

The affirmative action executive order revokes an order issued by President Lyndon Johnson and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grantees. It is using one of the key tools used by the Biden administration to promote DEI programs across the private sector — pushing their use of federal contractors — to now eradicate them.

The Office of Personnel Management, in a Tuesday memo, directed agencies to put DEI office staff on paid leave by 6 p.m. 17 Wednesday and remove all public DEI-focused web pages within the same deadline. Several federal departments had already removed the web pages before the memorandum. Agencies must also cancel any DEI-related training and terminate all related contracts, and federal workers are asked to report to Trump’s Office of Personnel Management if they suspect a DEI-related program has been renamed to obscure its purpose within 10 days or face “negative consequences.”

By Thursday, federal agencies are being asked to compile a list of federal DEI offices and workers as of Election Day. Next Friday, they are expected to develop a plan to carry out a “reduction effort” against these federal workers.

The memo was first reported by CBS News.

The move comes after Monday’s executive order accused former President Joe Biden of forcing “discriminatory” programs into “virtually every aspect of the federal government” through “diversity, equity and inclusion” programs, known as DEI.

The move is the first salvo in an aggressive campaign to increase DEI efforts nationwide, including tapping the Justice Department and other agencies to investigate private companies that pursue 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 last acts of his first term was an executive order to prohibit federal agencies and recipients of federal funding from conducting anti-bias training that addressed concepts such as systemic racism. Biden immediately canceled the 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.

Although many changes could take months or even years to implement, Trump’s new anti-DEI agenda is more aggressive than his first and comes amid a far more accommodating business landscape. Prominent companies from Walmart to Facebook have already scaled back or ended some of their diversity practices in response to Trump’s election and conservative-backed lawsuits against them.

Here’s a look at some of the policies and programs that Trump will aim to dismantle:

Offices of Diversity, Education and Accountability

Trump’s order would immediately halt Biden’s sweeping efforts to embed diversity and inclusion practices in the federal workforce, the nation’s largest at about 2.4 million people.

Biden had mandated all agencies develop a diversity plan, issue annual progress reports and contribute data to a government-wide dashboard to track demographic trends in hiring and promotions. The administration also established a Chief Diversity Officer Council to oversee implementation of the DEI plan. The government released its first DEI progress report in 2022, which included demographic data for the federal workforce, which is about 60% white and 55% male overall, and more than 75% white and more than 60% male at the senior management level.

Trump’s executive order would scrap equity plans developed by federal agencies and terminate any roles or offices dedicated to promoting diversity. That would include eliminating initiatives such as DEI-related training or diversity measures in performance reviews.

Federal grant and benefit programs

Trump’s order paves the way for an aggressive but bureaucratically complicated overhaul of billions of dollars in federal spending that conservative activists argue unfairly singles out racial minorities and women.

The order does not specify which programs it would target, but mandates a government-wide review to ensure contracts and grants are consistent with the Trump administration’s anti-DEI stance. It also proposes that the federal government settle pending lawsuits against federal programs that benefit historically underserved communities, including some that go back decades.

Trump’s executive order is a “seismic shift and a complete change in the focus and direction of the federal government,” said Dan Lennington, deputy counsel for the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, which has pursued numerous lawsuits against federal programs. The institute recently released an influential report detailing dozens of programs the Trump administration should consider winding down, such as credits for minority farmers or emergency aid for majority-black neighborhoods.

He acknowledged that winding down some entrenched programs can be difficult. For example, the Treasury Department implements housing and other assistance programs through block grants to states that have their own methods of implementing diversity criteria.

Salary and employment practices

It is not clear whether the Trump administration will target any initiative that stemmed from Biden’s DEI executive order.

For example, the Biden administration banned federal agencies from asking about an applicant’s salary history when determining compensation, a practice that many civil rights activists say perpetuates wage disparities for women and people of color.

It took three years for the Biden administration to issue the final rulesand Trump would have to go through a similar rulemaking process, including a notice and comment period, to rescind it, said Chiraag Bains, former deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council under Biden and now a nonresident senior fellow at Brookings Metro.

Noreen Farrell, executive director of the gender rights group Equal Rights Advocates, said she was hopeful the Trump administration “will not go out of its way to undo the rule,” which she said has proven popular in some states and cities that have adopted similar policies.

And Biden’s DEI plan included some initiatives with bipartisan support, Bains said. For example, he tasked the Chief Diversity Officers Executive Council with expanding federal employment opportunities for people with criminal records. This initiative stems from the Fair Chance Act, which Trump signed into law in 2019 and prohibits federal agencies and contractors from asking about an applicant’s criminal history before making a conditional job offer.

Bains said that’s what Biden’s DEI policies were about: making sure the federal government was structured to include historically marginalized communities, not enacting “reverse discrimination against white men.”

Despite the sweeping language of Trump’s order, Farrell said, “the reality of implementing such massive structural changes is far more complex.”

“Federal agencies have deeply embedded policies and procedures that cannot just be turned off overnight,” she added.