From federal agencies to stakeholders who receive federal funds for special training, many are trying to understand how President Donald Trump’s sweeping executive order ending diversity, equity and inclusion U.S. government programs will disrupt their work.
DEI laws and programs have been under attack for years from Republicans who say the measures threaten the merit-based hiring, promotion and educational opportunities of whites, particularly white men. Criticism also comes from other sectors: Some Asian Americans say it unfairly limits opportunities for students and high-achieving workers, and some in the black community believe it undermines years of progress.
However, DEI proponents say the programs are necessary to ensure institutions meet the needs of increasingly diverse populations and that the impact of losing these measures extends beyond people of color.
On Wednesday, Trump put the weight of the federal government behind efforts to end these programs by sign a decree it would effectively dismantle them from every aspect of the federal government.
“To the people who oppose us, to the people who attack the DEI, they tried to smear that acronym,” Virginia Kase Solomón, president and CEO of Common Cause, said Wednesday during a panel call to action after Trump’s anti-DEI executive decision. order. “Instead, they want to diminish, exterminate and neutralize progress toward multiracial democracy in order to maintain white supremacy and the concentration of wealth. »
How did this happen?
Republican lawmakers who oppose DEI programs — created to address systemic inequalities faced by certain groups — say they are discriminatory and promote left-wing ideology.
During his presidential campaign, Trump pledged to end “wokeness” and “left-wing indoctrination” in education. He has pledged to dismantle diversity programs that he says constitute discrimination and to fine colleges “up to the full amount of their endowment.”
In 2023, conservatives won a long-awaited victory when the U.S. Supreme Court canceled affirmative action programs in higher education, arguing that race-based admissions violate the Constitution. This decision has sparked increased legal challenges against DEI initiatives, with some American companies citing the decision to scale back their diversity policies.
What does Trump’s order ask for?
The executive action calls for an end to DEI programs, mandates, policies, preferences and activities within the federal government, as well as the review and revision of existing federal employment practices, union contracts and training policies or programs.
Agency, department, and commission heads have 60 days to terminate, to the maximum extent permitted by law, all DEI, DEIA, and “environmental justice” mandates and positions, plans. of actions, grants or contracts linked to actions, as well as to terminate all performance requirements of DEI or DEIA. .
It also targets federal contractors who have provided DEI training or materials, and grantees who have received federal funding to provide or advance DEI programs, services or activities since former President Joe Biden took office in 2021.
Paolo Gaudiano provides DEI consulting services to a government contractor and federal academy through his company, Aleria, which helps organizations measure inclusion, and ARC, a nonprofit focused on DEI research .
He has not heard from the agencies he works with regarding the status of his contract since Trump’s executive order. What he hears is that the employees are terrified because the meaning of the order is not clear.
“Does that mean closing the office but giving them a different position? said Gaudiano. “It’s a waste, a complete waste.”
Many federal employees did not want to speak to reporters, concerned about the punitive environment at the White House.
“It’s possible I’ll contact them and find out they’ve all been fired,” Gaudiano said.
Even with hindsight, Gaudiano is confident that employees and contractors will still pursue some form of DEI programs, especially if it improves productivity. Although anti-DEI groups often focus on racial identity, underrepresented populations may include women, the LGBTQ community, people with disabilities, or veterans.
“What happens is you focus on structural organizational issues, which often affect minority groups or underrepresented groups more than majority groups,” Gaudiano said. “When you solve problems, you solve everyone’s problems. And it benefits underrepresented groups as well as minority groups.
What effect did the anti-DEI movement have before the executive order?
— Dozens of diversity, equity and inclusion programs have already been shut down in Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina, Iowa, Nebraska, Texas and other states.
— Nearly 200 diversity, equity and inclusion staff positions have been eliminated or reassigned across the North Carolina public university system. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Board of Trustees in May approved the diversion of $2.3 million in state funds to promote diversity in public safety and policing.
— Texas law of 2023 led the University of Texas to cut 300 full- and part-time positions and eliminate more than 600 programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion training.
— In 2023, Republican Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt signed an anti-DEI order that led to the end last year of the National Women’s Leadership Program at the University of Oklahoma.
— Wisconsin University Regents reached a deal with Republican lawmakers in 2023 to limit DEI positions on the system’s two dozen campuses in exchange for funds for staff raises and construction projects. The agreement imposed a hiring freeze for diversity-related positions until 2026 and shifted more than 40 diversity-related positions to focus on “student success.”
How will the decree be executed?
The Office of Personnel Management, in a Tuesday memo, ordered agencies to put DEI office employees on paid leave by 5 p.m. Wednesday and remove all public DEI-focused web pages by the same deadline.
Agencies must also cancel any DEI-related training and terminate any associated contracts, and federal employees are urged to report to Trump’s Office of Personnel Management if they suspect that a DEI-related program has been renamed to Obfuscate your goal within 10 days or face “adverse consequences.”
By Thursday, federal agencies must compile a list of DEI offices and federal employees as of Election Day. By next Friday, they are expected to develop a plan to execute a “reduction in force action” against these federal workers.
It may be easy for Trump to sign such an order, but harder to execute, said Frederick Gooding Jr., a professor of African American studies at Texas Christian University and author of “American Dream Deferred: Black Federal Workers in Washington , DC, 1941-”. 1981.”
“It won’t be as easy to execute. It will be more of a fantasy. There is no silver bullet to these problems that have taken years, if not centuries, to develop,” Gooding said Wednesday.
The National Urban League and the National Fair Housing Alliance, as government contractors, along with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund sued a similar executive order issued during the first Trump administration, arguing that it flouted the right to freedom of expression. A federal court in California suspended that order in response to a similar lawsuit filed by Lambda Legal, an organization that advocates for the rights of LGBTQ people.
“This is going to test us,” National Urban League President Marc Moriel said Wednesday during a call-to-action roundtable hosted by the group. “These orders are illegal; they are unconstitutional.
___ Figueroa reported from Austin, Texas. Alexander reported from Washington. Williams reported from Detroit. Associated Press reporter Alexandra Olson in New York contributed to this report.