Donald Trump quickly made good on his executive order cutting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies in the federal government as he is set to fire all DEI hires by tomorrow.
The new Trump administration sent a letter to all heads and acting heads of government agencies on Tuesday, informing them all federal employees in DEI roles must be placed on paid leave by 5pm Wednesday.
All DEI offices in federal agencies are being shuttered in the move, which comes after Trump signed an anti-DEI executive order in front of a cheering crowd at his inauguration on Monday.
In a letter first obtained by CBS News and shared to X, the agencies were ordered to ‘take prompt actions’ on all departments ‘focusing exclusively on DEI initiatives and programs.’
The letter also demands all public DEI focused webpages be taken offline, and orders employees within the departments to report ‘any efforts to disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language.’
Any employees that are aware of ‘coded or imprecise language’ intended to keep DEI programs alive but do not report them within 10 days are warned of ‘adverse consequences.’
Trump’s executive order, titled ‘Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing and Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions’, directly reverses a DEI executive order enacted by President Biden on his first day in office four years ago.
The order concludes: ‘These programs divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars, and resulted in shameful discrimination.’
Donald Trump quickly made good on his executive order cutting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies in the federal government by firing all DEI hires by tomorrow
When Trump signed the anti-DEI executive order in one of his first actions back in the White House, he condemned the practice as ‘illegal, immoral and discriminatory.’
After all DEI hires are placed on leave by 5pm Wednesday, agencies are ordered to develop plans to lay off each employee that was hired under DEI policies, with a deadline of next Friday given to develop a list for a ‘reduction in force action.’
The executive order slammed the ‘infiltration’ of DEI programs into the federal government, and pointed to an executive order signed by Biden on the first day of his presidency that aimed to tackle racial inequalities in government.
In a memo issued by the White House on Tuesday night, the Trump administration cited progress made by the passage of civil rights legislation decades ago as having been lost to DEI programs.
‘Today, roughly 60 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, critical and influential institutions of American society, including the Federal Government, major corporations, financial institutions, the medical industry, large commercial airlines, law enforcement agencies, and institutions of higher education have adopted and actively use dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race and sex-based preferences under the guise of so-called ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion,’ the memo read.
Trump’s anti-DEI executive order directly reverses one signed by President Biden on the first day of his presidency four years ago aimed at tackling racial inequalities in government (pictured signing the order on January 20, 2021)
Trump’s order argued that DEI programs ‘not only violate the text and spirit of our longstanding Federal civil-rights laws, they also undermine our national unity.’
‘They deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement in favor of an unlawful, corrosive, and pernicious identity-based spoils system,’ the memo continued.
‘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.’
