President Donald Trump’s administration has mandated that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be placed on paid leave effective immediately before they are eventually laid off after signing an executive order shuttering all federal DEI programming.
An Office of Personnel Management memo was sent to all the respective agencies, ordering them to place all DEI office staffers on paid leave and take down all public DEI-focused webpages by 5 pm (22:00 GMT) on Wednesday.
The order directs all “executive departments and agencies (agencies) to terminate all discriminatory and illegal preferences, mandates, policies, programs, activities, guidance, regulations, enforcement actions, consent orders, and requirements.”
CBS News first reported the news.
On September 24, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson made history by signing an executive order authorizing the Secretary of Labor to ensure equal opportunity for people of color and women, reshaping the way federal contractors approached recruitment, hiring, training and employment practices—a powerful move toward a more inclusive future.
The order was a major win for the Civil Rights Movement, but with just one penstroke, Trump and his right-wing agenda rolled it all back.
“I further order all agencies to enforce our longstanding civil-rights laws and to combat illegal private-sector DEI preferences, mandates, policies, programs […] The Federal Government is charged with enforcing our civil-rights laws. The purpose of this order is to ensure that it does so by ending illegal preferences and discrimination,” his order states.
🚨ALL FEDERAL EMPLOYEES IN DEI ROLES HAVE BEEN PLACED ON PAID LEAVE pic.twitter.com/4nB4DLEbr5
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) January 22, 2025
Trump made it clear during his presidential campaign that he would be terminating all federal government’s DEI programs when he took office.
Republicans are reveling in the moment.
“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,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “This is another win for Americans of all races, religions, and creeds. Promises made, promises kept.”
In response to the outcry, the White House published a factsheet on Wednesday morning (Jan.22), stating that “Billions of dollars are spent annually on DEI, but rather than reducing bias and promoting inclusion, DEI creates and then amplifies prejudicial hostility and exacerbates interpersonal conflict.”
