The Trump administration on Tuesday ordered that officials overseeing diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at federal agencies be placed on leave and took steps to close their offices as of Wednesday evening.
In a memo from the Office of Personnel Management, heads of departments and agencies were ordered to remove such officials by placing all DEI employees on paid administrative leave effective immediately by 5 p.m. Wednesday and plan for staff reductions until the end of . Of 31st January.
also directed the memorandum Agencies will be asked to remove any language or advertising regarding their DEI initiatives and to withdraw any pending documents or instructions that would undermine the new orders. It also ordered agency heads to inform DEI officials that their offices would be closed and that staff would be questioned about whether any remaining efforts were “hidden” by coded or foul language.
The directive was a swift effort to implement elements of President Trump’s Day One executive order dismantling federal diversity efforts. In a new executive order on Tuesday, Mr. Trump encouraged 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 compliance with those laws by corporations and foundations.
While the federal government has no jurisdiction over many of the private sector’s practices, it does have the discretion to impose its rules on highly trusted private contractors and subcontractors who will be subject to the new rules. In anticipation of Mr. Trump taking office, many companies, From Meta and McDonald’s, has withdrawn its DEI initiative.
The order Tuesday said DEI policies “undermine our national unity because they negate traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement in favor of an unlawful, corrosive, and harmful identity-based predatory system.” And weaken us.” ,
“Yet in one tragic case after another,” the order said, “the American people have seen firsthand the devastating consequences of illegal, dangerous discrimination that prioritized what people were capable of Instead of how they were born.”
Within hours of taking the oath of office, Mr. Trump criticized his predecessor, Joseph R. Rescinded several executive orders signed by Biden Jr. The first was one that Mr. Biden signed on his first day in office, titled “Advancing Racial Equity and Supporting Disadvantaged Communities,” which ordered that federal agencies during his tenure nearly Bring equality in all policy making.
Mr. Biden prided himself on placing racial equity at the center of his policymaking in areas including the environment, infrastructure, the economy and health care.
Mr Trump’s orders reverse Mr Biden’s position that a government committed to reversing decades of discrimination and neglect in disadvantaged communities is an improvement for the nation rather than a threat to the country’s future.
The executive actions instead are an effort to deliver on Mr. Trump’s promise to eliminate “radical” policy and “wasteful” spending on initiatives aimed at tackling systemic inequities, which have drawn the ire of conservatives who say Diversity initiatives have reversed discrimination and racial discrimination. Priorities.” Mr. Trump’s order on Tuesday required ending programs with goals of “diversity,” “equality” and “equitable decision-making,” among other conditions.
Mr Trump amplified these calls during his inaugural address to the nation after taking office, and vowed to stop efforts to “socially embed race and gender into every aspect of public and private life”.
Mr. Trump declared during the address, “We will create a society that is color-blind and merit-based.”
White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt said in a statement that the new directive “should come as no surprise.”
The statement read, “President Trump campaigned on calling on our federal government to end the DEI crisis and return America to a merit-based society, where people are hired based on their skills, not “Based on the color of their skin.” “This is another victory for Americans of all races, religions and creeds. Promises were made, promises were kept.”
Zolan Kanno-Youngs Contributed to the reporting.