The Culture War President: Trump’s Crusade Against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

By: Asha Navaratnasingam

Edited by: regan cornelius and asher moss

At the onset of U.S. President Donald Trump’s first term, Politico dubbed him “The Culture War President” in response to his ongoing hostility toward politically correct elites.[1] In the context of Trump’s renewed fight against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, his past statements feel especially relevant. Near the end of his first term, he issued an executive order banning diversity training in federal organizations.[2] A federal judge blocked the mandate due to concerns over First Amendment violations. Then, when Joe Biden took office as the 46th President, he signed an executive order promoting DEI programs.[3] Rather than acting as a deterrent, however, the Biden administration seems to have furthered Trump’s vendetta against equity initiatives. During his 2024, and third consecutive, run for the presidency, he highlighted his past and intended continuation of the war against DEI as a defining aspect of his platform; he declared in a March 2023 speech that “every institution in America is under attack from this Marxist concept of ‘equity.’” Trump further vowed to reinstate his 2020 executive order when he retook office.[4] Within his election platform, Trump asserted that the U.S. Congress should compensate those “unjustly discriminated against by these destructive policies.”[5]

Immediately upon taking office, Trump followed through on his campaign promises and signed an executive order titled “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing.” Labeling DEI as “illegal and immoral” and condemning its “infiltration” into the federal government, the order mandated the discontinuation of all federal DEI programs.[6] It gave agency, department, and commission heads sixty days to terminate all DEI offices, positions, action plans, equity-related grants or contracts, and performance requirements.[6] In his second day in office, the President signed another executive order on DEI, titled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” which cancelled previous administrations’ executive actions relating to DEI.[7] This includes an Equal Employment Opportunity executive order that had played a critical role in federal job equality since 1965.[8] President Trump has also tasked federal agencies with investigating the private sector’s diversity programs for violations of federal law.[9] Purging DEI initiatives from all aspects of the American corporate structure, Trump has promised to “create a society that is blind to color and based on merit.”[10] He has promoted a new method endorsed by Elon Musk.[11] This approach, centered around Merit, Excellence, and Intelligence (MEI), emphasizes choosing employees based on qualification without consideration of demographics.[12] Many leading companies have already made the switch from DEI-based hiring to MEI, including McDonald’s, Walmart, Amazon, and Meta.[13]

In a matter of days, Trump’s executive orders have also revamped the federal bureaucracy. The Department of Veterans Affairs has placed nearly 60 employees responsible for diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives on paid leave, and the department is in the process of canceling several DEI programs, contracts, and materials.[14] Morgan Ackley, Director of Media Affairs for the Veterans Affairs Department, issued a statement affirming that the Department was “proud to have abandoned the divisive DEI policies of the past.”[15] The Department of Education has also put a number of DEI-focused employees on paid leave and has removed hundreds of materials with mentions of DEI from its outward-facing communication channels.[16] Moving forward, the Education Department pledges to continue to review all programs to remove any initiatives that contain a “divisive DEI agenda.”[17]

The Trump Administration’s gutting of DEI policies have far-reaching consequences for federal as well as private employees. Many employees that federal agencies have placed on leave face potential job loss solely on the basis of involvement in past DEI programs.[18] Furthermore, the executive orders have paused voluntary, employee-led affinity resource groups, and workers say the ramifications of this loss have been devastating.[19] Previous attendees of these resource groups say their community aspect helped them feel like they belonged in the workplace;one worker relayed he had “never been more scared at work” after the groups’ removal.[20] In addition, many federal employees from marginalized communities believe the language used in the executive orders is targeting their identities and feel both psychologically and physically unsafe in their work spaces.[21] Private companies’ diversity programs, many of which are under investigation by federal agencies, are also threatened.[22] Reaching all the way back to his first term, Trump has prioritized dismantling diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. He has certainly lived up to the label as the “Culture War President.” Moving forward, the President will likely focus on further purging DEI from the public sector and implementing Merit, Excellence, and Intelligence hiring programs in its place. There is no doubt that the impacts of these actions will resonate across the bureaucracy and the greater American workforce.

Notes:

1. Scher, Bill. “The Culture War President - POLITICO Magazine.” Politico, September 27, 2017. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/09/27/trump-culture-war-215653/.

2. Trump, Donald. “Executive Order on Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping.” National Archives and Records Administration, September 22, 2020. https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-combating-race-sex-stereotyping/.

3. Aratani, Lauren. “How Could Trump’s Second Term Affect Dei Initiatives in the US?” The Guardian, January 11, 2025. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jan/11/trump-dei-diversity.

4. Trump, Donald. “Agenda47: Reversing Biden’s Eo Embedding Marxism in the Federal Government: Donald J. Trump for President 2024.” Agenda47 | Donald J. Trump, March 2, 2023. https://www.donaldjtrump.com/agenda47/agenda47-reversing-bidens-eo-embedding-marxism-in-the-federal-government.

5. Evans, Misty. “Presidential Possibilities.” Insight Into Diversity, November 6, 2024.https://www.insightintodiversity.com/presidential-possibilities/.

6. Trump, Donald. “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government Dei Programs and Preferencing.” The White House, January 20, 2025. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-and-wasteful-government-dei-programs-and-preferencing/.

7. Trump, Donald. “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.” The White House, January 21, 2025. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-illegal-discrimination-and-restoring-merit-based-opportunity/.

8. Moore, ReNika. “Trump’s Executive Orders Rolling Back Dei and Accessibility Efforts, Explained: ACLU.” American Civil Liberties Union, January 24, 2025. https://www.aclu.org/news/racial-justice/trumps-executive-orders-rolling-back-dei-and-accessibility-efforts-explained.

9. Montlake, Simon. “Trump Is Attacking Dei in Government and beyond. What Will Be the Impact?” The Christian Science Monitor, February 4, 2025. https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2025/0204/trump-dei-discrimination-merit-faa.

10. Kelly, Jack. “President Trump Shifts to ‘Merit, Excellence and Intelligence’ in the Workplace and Away from DEI.” Forbes, February 1, 2025. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2025/02/01/president-trump-shifts-to-merit-excellence-and-intelligence-in-the-workplace-and-away-from-dei/.

11. Borchers, Callum. “Merit, Excellence and Intelligence: An Anti-DEI Approach ...” The Wall Street Journal, July 24, 2024. https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/workplace/dei-catches-on-merit-intelligence-excellence-mei-27839a3c.

12. Kelly. “President Trump…Away from DEI.”
13. Ibid.

14. “Va Ends Dei, Stops Millions in Spending on DEI.” V A News, January 27, 2025. https://news.va.gov/press-room/va-ends-dei-stops-millions-in-spending-on-dei/.

15. Ibid.

16. “U.S. Department of Education Takes Action to Eliminate Dei.” U.S. Department of Education, January 23, 2025. https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-takes-action-eliminate-dei.

17. Ibid.

18. Stein, Chris. “‘Very Retaliatory’: The Federal Workers Caught up in Trump’s Dei Purge.” The Guardian, February 2, 2025. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/02/trump-dei-purge-federal-government.

19. Ibid.

20. Yam, Kimmy. “Trump’s Anti-DEI Executive Orders Target Employee Resource Groups, Federal Workers Say.” NBCNews.com, January 27, 2025. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/trump-anti-dei-orders-target-federal-employee-groups-rcna189212.

21. Khetarpal, Monica H., and Michael D. Thomas. “The Impact of President Trump’s EO’son Dei: Essential Strategies for Employers.” Jackson Lewis, February 6, 2025. https://www.jacksonlewis.com/insights/impact-president-trumps-eos-dei-essential-strategIes-employers.

22. Ibid, 9.

Bibliography:

Aratani, Lauren. “How Could Trump’s Second Term Affect Dei Initiatives in the US?” The Guardian, January 11, 2025. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jan/11/trump-dei-diversity.

Borchers, Callum. “Merit, Excellence and Intelligence: An Anti-DEI Approach ...” The Wall Street Journal, July 24, 2024. https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/workplace/dei-catches-on-merit-intelligence-excellence-mei-27839a3c.

Evans, Misty. “Presidential Possibilities.” Insight Into Diversity, November 6, 2024. https://www.insightintodiversity.com/presidential-possibilities/.

Kelly, Jack. “President Trump Shifts to ‘merit, Excellence and Intelligence’ in the Workplace and Away from Dei.” Forbes, February 1, 2025. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2025/02/01/president-trump-shifts-to-merit-excellence-and-intelligence-in-the-workplace-and-away-from-dei/.

Khetarpal, Monica H., and Michael D. Thomas. “The Impact of President Trump’s EO’s on Dei: Essential Strategies for Employers.” Jackson Lewis, February 6, 2025. https://www.jacksonlewis.com/insights/impact-president-trumps-eos-dei-essential-strategies-employers.

Montlake, Simon. “Trump Is Attacking Dei in Government and beyond. What Will Be the Impact?” The Christian Science Monitor, February 4, 2025. https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2025/0204/trump-dei-discrimination-merit-faa.

Moore, ReNika. “Trump’s Executive Orders Rolling Back Dei and Accessibility Efforts, Explained: ACLU.” American Civil Liberties Union, January 24, 2025.Navaratnasingam 6 https://www.aclu.org/news/racial-justice/trumps-executive-orders-rolling-back-dei-and-accessibility-efforts-explained.

Trump, Donald. “Agenda47: Reversing Biden’s Eo Embedding Marxism in the Federal Government: Donald J. Trump for President 2024.” Agenda47 | Donald J. Trump, March 2, 2023. https://www.donaldjtrump.com/agenda47/agenda47-reversing-bidens-eo-embedding-marxism-in-the-federal-government.

Trump, Donald. “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.” The White House, January 21, 2025. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-illegal-discrimination-and-restoring-merit-based-opportunity/.

Trump, Donald. “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government Dei Programs and Preferencing.” The White House, January 20, 2025. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-and-wasteful-government-dei-programs-and-preferencing/.

Trump, Donald. “Executive Order on Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping.” National Archives and Records Administration, September 22, 2020. https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-combating-race-sex-stereotyping/.

Scher, Bill. “The Culture War President - POLITICO Magazine.” Politico, September 27, 2017. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/09/27/trump-culture-war-215653/.Navaratnasingam 7

Stein, Chris. “‘Very Retaliatory’: The Federal Workers Caught up in Trump’s Dei Purge.” The Guardian, February 2, 2025 .https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/02/trump-dei-purge-federal-government.

“U.S. Department of Education Takes Action to Eliminate Dei.” U.S. Department of Education, January 23, 2025. https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-takes-action-eliminate-dei.

“Va Ends Dei, Stops Millions in Spending on DEI.” V A News, January 27, 2025. https://news.va.gov/press-room/va-ends-dei-stops-millions-in-spending-on-dei/.

Yam, Kimmy. “Trump’s Anti-DEI Executive Orders Target Employee Resource Groups, Federal Workers Say.” NBCNews.com, January 27, 2025. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/trump-anti-dei-orders-target-federal-employee-groups-rcna189212.