Trump Orders Federal DEI Efforts to Shut Down by Wednesday Night
President Donald Trump has ordered the immediate dismantling of all Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs across federal agencies, with affected employees facing termination by next week in what observers are calling one of the most rapid restructurings of federal employment in recent history.
The directive, issued Tuesday through a government-wide letter to agency heads, mandates that all DEI employees be placed on paid leave by 5 pm Wednesday.
The order comes on the heels of Trump’s inauguration day executive order targeting DEI initiatives throughout the federal government, where he signed the measure in front of a cheering crowd during Monday’s ceremony.
According to a letter first obtained by CBS News, agency leaders must take “prompt actions” against departments focused on DEI programs.
The directive extends beyond personnel changes, requiring the immediate removal of DEI-related web content and establishing a reporting system for employees to flag any attempts to preserve these programs through “coded or imprecise language.”
Those who fail to report such attempts within 10 days face “adverse consequences.”
The executive order, formally titled “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing and Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions,” directly counters policies established by the Biden administration four years ago on his first day in office.
Agency heads face a tight timeline for implementation.
By next Friday, they must compile lists for a “reduction in force action” targeting DEI employees.
The Office of Personnel Management expects comprehensive reports on program elimination efforts by Jan. 23, including detailed records of all DEI office staff employed as of Nov. 5, 2024.
A written plan for terminating all DEI employees must be submitted by Jan. 31, 2025.
The shake-up has already claimed its first high-profile casualty.
Admiral Linda Fagan, who led the US Coast Guard, was removed from her position over what the administration cited as concerns about her DEI policy focus.
Daily Mail reported that in a Tuesday night memo, the White House framed the decision within a broader historical context, suggesting that progress achieved through civil rights legislation has been undermined by DEI initiatives.
The administration argued that roughly 60 years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, major American institutions had adopted “dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race and sex-based preferences under the guise of so-called ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion.’”
The memo asserted that “hardworking Americans who deserve a shot at the American Dream should not be stigmatized, demeaned, or shut out of opportunities because of their race or sex.”
It further claimed that “the American people have witnessed first-hand the disastrous consequences of illegal, pernicious discrimination that has prioritized how people were born instead of what they were capable of doing.”
The DEI dissolution represents just one component of Trump’s broader policy overhaul, Daily Mail outlined.
In a parallel move, he reversed a longstanding affirmative action order in federal contracting that had been in place since President Lyndon Johnson’s administration in 1965.
This DEI directive is part of a larger series of executive actions, including the immediate rescission of 78 Biden-era orders.
The new administration has targeted policies ranging from national security and border control to environmental regulations and gender policies, including the reversal of Biden’s order allowing military service based on gender identity.
Among other significant changes, Trump’s executive actions pledge to restore free speech and end censorship, to end what the administration terms the “weaponization” of the federal government against “political opponents,” and to mandate the return of all federal employees to in-person work.
Americans need to completely and totally reject DEI/LGBTQ/TRANSGENDER ideologies.
We need to EJECT this CRAP out of our schools and libraries, our military, women's sports, our government and retirement accounts. pic.twitter.com/O79a95qri8
— Murphy's Law …Trump 2024 ! …X MILITARY (@Murphys69492668) January 21, 2025
Daily Mail highlighted that the administration’s executive action states that “the previous administration has embedded deeply unpopular inflationary, illegal and radical practices within every agency and office of the federal government,” adding that “to commence the policies that will make our Nation united, fair, safe and prosperous again, it is the policy of the United States to restore common sense to the federal government.”
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