Trump Puts All US Government DEI Employees On Paid Leave ‘Immediately’

President Donald Trump has ordered all US government employees working on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs to be placed on immediate paid administrative leave.

In an executive order late Tuesday, he called for an end to the “dangerous, degrading and immoral” programs.

The White House confirmed that all federal DEI employees were to be furloughed by 6 p.m. 17:00 EST (22:00 GMT) on Wednesday before the affected offices and programs were shut down.

Since taking office on Monday, Trump has acted quickly on a series of key promises through a series of unilateral actions. He repeatedly attacked DEI practices on the campaign trail, arguing that they were discriminatory.

DEI programs aim to promote workplace participation by people from a range of backgrounds.

Their backers say they address historical underrepresentation and discrimination against certain groups, including racial minorities, but critics say such programs can themselves be discriminatory.

In his inaugural address on Monday, Trump promised to “forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based.”

Tuesday’s executive order took aim at what it called DEI’s and DEIA’s “unlawful” (diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility) policies, listing them as being in opposition to US law.

It said these policies had the ability to “violate” important underlying civil rights laws that protect Americans from discrimination.

The order further argued that DEI programs “undermine our national unity” as they denied “traditional” values ​​in favor of an “identity-based barter system”.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the move “is another victory for Americans of all races, religions and faiths” and fulfills a campaign promise made by Trump.

The memo, which CBS has seen, was sent from the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to heads of government agencies. In addition to directing them to put DEI employees on leave, it made a number of requests, including the removal of public websites for DEIA offices.

It also mandates that federal hiring, promotions and performance evaluations “reward individual initiative” rather than “DEI-related factors” and revokes a 1965 executive order signed by former President Lyndon B Johnson making it illegal for federal contractors to discriminate on the basis of “race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or national origin” in their employment.

By Thursday, federal agencies must compile a list of DEI offices and workers, the order states. Boards must submit “a written plan” for implementing layoffs in DEI’s offices by January 31 at the latest.

The order also requires the attorney general to submit recommendations within 120 days “to encourage the private sector” to end similar diversity efforts.

Tuesday’s order comes on the heels of another that promised to end programs Trump deemed “radical and wasteful.”

Signed Monday, it states that all DEI offices, positions and programs must be terminated within 60 days, “to the maximum extent permitted by law.”

It is unclear how many government employees will be affected by these orders.

Several major US companies have ended or scaled back their DEI programs in recent weeks, including McDonald’s, Walmart and Facebook parent company Meta.

Others, like Apple and retailers Target and Costco, have publicly defended their DEI programs.