President Trump had barely reunited with the Oval Office after his second inauguration when he began trashing the Biden administration’s DEI initiatives, fulfilling a cause célèbre for conservatives that had helped fuel his political comeback.
On his second day back in power, Trump ordered agency heads to place officials who had been responsible for overseeing diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the federal government on paid administrative leave and to close their offices.
Part of an executive action signed a day earlier, it was the first step in rolling back DEI policies that had been a hallmark of the administration of his Democratic predecessor, President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
This is how we get here:
What is DEI?
DEI stands for diversity, equity and inclusion. A page on the US Department of Labor website, which was remote Two days into the president’s new term, he defined diversity as recognizing all the ways people differ. That can include race, sex, gender, age, sexual orientation, disability, socioeconomic status, religious beliefs and more.
“Organizations that respect diversity can generate new ideas, solve problems, grow, and function more efficiently,” read the deleted entry on DEI on the agency’s website, which later read: “Page not found.”
it’s not new
While the three-letter abbreviation has become a hot topic in recent years, the principle has existed for decades in both the public and private sectors. It was developed as a result of Civil Rights Act of 1964which prohibited employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin.
Beyond the federal government, private companies, universities, and nonprofit groups have put DEI principles into practice.
DEI policies expanded after George Floyd’s murder
The 2020 murder of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who was killed by police officers in Minneapolis, marked the beginning of a national reckoning on racial discrimination that brought sweeping changes to many powerful institutions and a renewed emphasis on initiatives DEI, including actions by the Biden administration. . (Mr. Biden revealed a “racial equity agenda”on his first day in office in January 2021).
A nonprofit organization made up of several of America’s largest companies asked its members to commit to hiring and promoting black workers based on their skills rather than their college degrees. A growing number of brands like Chick-fil-A, Bud Light, and Target (through policies and advertising campaigns) have adopted the mantra of being more inclusive.
For conservatives, three letters became a four-letter word
After losing the presidency in 2020 to Democrats, who also controlled the House and Senate when Biden took office, Republicans latched onto an emerging wedge issue, which became a flashpoint in the 2024 elections: DEI .
Those three letters became a staple of Trump’s campaign speeches, sure to draw boos from stadiums packed with his supporters in battleground states as he argued that the federal government and many businesses had “woke.” A 2023 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court further emboldened conservatives by rejecting affirmative action in colleges and universities.
And when Biden was replaced as the Democratic presidential nominee in July by Vice President Kamala Harris, some of Trump’s allies in Congress disparagingly referred to her as a “hire DEI.” In front of an audience of black journalists in Chicago, Trump He refused to disavow his followers’ comments and questioned Ms. Harris’s racial identity as a black woman.
“She was Indian all the time, and then all of a sudden she took a turn and became a black person,” he said of Ms. Harris, whose mother was Indian American, whose father is black and who has always so embraced their Black and South Asian Identity.
What will Trump’s executive order change?
A day after Trump declared in his inaugural speech that would “end the government’s policy of attempting to socially mainstream race and gender into all aspects of public and private life,” his administration began purging DEI staff members from federal agencies.
Those agencies were ordered to remove any language or advertising about their DEI initiatives and to withdraw any pending documents or directives that could undermine the new orders. The Trump administration threatened federal employees with “adverse consequences” if they did not report colleagues who had defied orders to root out their agencies’ DEI efforts.
Trump urged the private sector to take similar steps and ordered agencies to investigate compliance by corporations and foundations. Companies that work as contractors or subcontractors for the federal government could also be subject to the new rules.
Some companies have already begun to withdraw from DEI
After Trump’s victory in the 2024 election, several prominent companies began backtracking on their DEI initiatives. Among them were Walmart, McDonald’s, Amazon and Goal.
Still, some corporations have moved forward with their racial and gender equity programs, including Costco and Microsoft.
Erica L. Green, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Nell Gallogly, Steve Lohr, mike isaac, Sheera Frenkel, Kate Conger and Jordyn Holman contributed with reports.
