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In the latest of his “culture war” attacks, new President Donald Trump has now put all federal DEI workers on paid leave – with the intention of firing them soon.
The workers – it’s unclear how many there are in total – were put on leave “immediately,” according to the executive order signed on Tueday night. Employees are ordered to be notified about the leave by 5 p.m. Wednesday.
The order also asks federal agencies for a plan by January 31 to dismiss the employees.
“llegal DEI and DEIA policies not only violate the text and spirit of our longstanding Federal civil-rights laws, they also undermine our national unity, as 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,” Trump’s order read.
The move is the latest from Trump to attack Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs that were started under former president Joe Biden.
“President Trump campaigned on ending the scourge of DEI from our federal government and returning America to a merit based society where people are hired based on their skills, not for the color of their skin. This is another win for Americans of all races, religions, and creeds. Promises made, promises kept,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
The move revoked President Lyndon Johnson’s decades-old protection of workers against discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or national origin.
The executive order also accused Biden of forcing “discrimination” programs into “virtually all aspects of the federal government” through “diversity, equity and inclusion” programs.
Civil rights advocates have argued such programs are necessary to address longstanding inequities and structural racism.
Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and insisted on restoring strictly “merit-based” hiring.
Several federal departments had removed the webpages even before the memorandum.
Trump’s executive order also seeks to dissuade private companies that receive government contracts from hiring employees from marginalised backgrounds – what the order called “illegal DEI discrimination and preferences” – and asked government agencies to identify private companies that might be subject to civil investigation.
Full details on how the Trump administration would enforce “civil compliance investigations” were not immediately available.
Prominent companies from Walmart to Facebook have already scaled back or ended some of their diversity practices in response to Trump’s election and conservative-backed lawsuits against them.
While many changes may take months or even years to implement, Trump’s new anti-DEI agenda is more aggressive than his first.
The executive order picks up where Trump’s first administration left off: One of Trump’s final acts during his first term was an executive order banning federal agency contractors and recipients of federal funding from conducting anti-bias training that addressed concepts like systemic racism.
Biden promptly rescinded that order on his first day in office and issued a pair of executive orders outlining a plan to promote DEI throughout the federal government.
