‘We will forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based,’ President Donald Trump stated.
Within hours of his inauguration, President Donald Trump took action to fulfill his promise to dismantle the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) agenda of the Biden administration.
Signing an executive order titled, “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing,” President Trump canceled what he deemed were his predecessor’s “illegal and immoral discrimination programs, going by the name ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion.’”
The Trump directive orders the director of the Office of Management and Budget, the U.S. Attorney General, and the director of the Office of Personnel Management to terminate “all discriminatory programs, including illegal DEI and ‘diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility’ (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in the federal government, under whatever name they appear.”
This action will apply to all federal employees, contractors, and grantees, according to the order.
In Trump’s inauguration speech, he pledged to “end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life.”
“We will forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based,” Trump said.
Among Trump’s presidential executive orders signed on inauguration day was a broad recision of 78 of Biden’s executive orders, many of which set out the former administration’s DEI agenda. These included, among others, Biden’s Executive Order 14035 “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in the Federal Workforce,” Executive Order 14091 “Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government,” Executive Order 13985 “Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government,” and several of Biden’s orders for “Advancing Educational Equity” regarding various racial groups.
During his term, President Biden issued numerous executive orders to implement DEI ideology throughout all agencies of the federal government, as well as the military.
In addition to revoking Biden’s orders, the Trump administration in its second term will likely also bring stronger enforcement of U.S. civil rights laws for both public and private employees. The U.S. Department of Labor, which regulates private companies on issues of discrimination, states that “the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.”
