Trump Keeps Campaign Promise: No More DEI or Gender ID in Government
(Bloomberg) -- From Corporate America to college campuses to the US Supreme Court, the backlash to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts has been building since well before Donald Trump’s election.
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But on his first day in office, the returning president made clear that the movement’s recent setbacks were only just the beginning.
One of Trump’s raft of initial executive orders called for ending DEI efforts in the federal government, including terminating diversity programs and potentially eliminating all related offices and positions. Another was a new policy declaring that the US will recognize only two sexes, male and female — signaling a rollback of transgender protections.
He also rescinded more than a dozen DEI-related executive orders from former President Joe Biden’s administration, including one that sought to overturn Trump’s own ban on the federal government and its contractors from training employees on racial bias. The president laid out a 45-day plan to assess the impact of past executive orders and the need for new ones. Even before Trump was sworn in Monday, an incoming White House official flagged that more actions on DEI are coming, and that private businesses should wait and see.
Less than five years after George Floyd’s murder ushered in sweeping corporate and cultural changes devoted to promoting equality, the new administration is taking steps to undo measures that conservatives have cast as discrimination against White Americans. The actions address cultural issues that galvanized Trump’s base and is a pet cause of backers such as Elon Musk, who has called DEI “just another word for racism.”
Trump, in one of the orders, said the injection of DEI into institutions “has corrupted them by replacing hard work, merit and equality with a divisive and dangerous preferential hierarchy.”
DEI has come under fire from conservative activists and lawyers who have challenged corporate programs aimed at boosting underrepresented groups. That only accelerated after the Supreme Court banned affirmative action in college admissions in 2023, prompting executives to reevaluate the initiatives
Anti-DEI activist Robby Starbuck claims to have forced DEI changes at more than a dozen companies since June — starting with Tractor Supply Inc. and eventually snaring major employers such as Walmart Inc. and Toyota Motor Corp. He initially gained support through social media campaigns and calls for boycotts to pressure companies to comply, but more recently has won concessions with only the threat of action, as sentiment has turned more in his favor.
Attitudes among US workers toward DEI has started to change as the backlash continues, according to a study by Pew Research Center. The share of workers who say DEI at work is a good thing fell to 52% in October from 60% in February 2023, the study found. Those who say DEI is bad increased from 16% to 21%.
“It’s definitely giving permission to the very worst actors,” said Rashad Robinson, who led civil rights group Color of Change for more than a dozen years before stepping down recently. “What is not being solved for is how unearned opportunity, unearned access and out and out discrimination is happening every single day in Corporate America.”
In the weeks before the inauguration, companies have been acting preemptively. Meta Platforms Inc. appointed Trump supporter and Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White to its board and dismantled many DEI programs, telling employees they will no longer be required to interview candidates from underrepresented backgrounds for open roles, or look to do business with diverse suppliers. Amazon.com Inc. also said it was adjusting its DEI programs amid a review of its policies.
The flurry of activity on Trump’s first day in office sent an unmistakable message that rolling back DEI would be a priority. He signed some of the orders shortly after taking office and others at a desk in the middle of the Capital One Arena in Washington, surrounded by thousands of cheering supporters. He finished up in front of reporters in the Oval Office before he left for inauguration parties.
EEOC Shift
Trump is setting out a much clearer direction in his second presidency, said Samia Kirmani, a co-leader of the corporate diversity practice for employer law firm Jackson Lewis PC. At the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Trump appointed Andrea Lucas, a Republican commissioner and outspoken DEI critic, to run the agency. Even though Democrats will have more votes on the commission until next year, Lucas will have an immediate influence over the agency that enforces workplace anti-discrimination laws.
“The Trump 2.0 administration has been informed by the last four years, and in some ways it’s a little different than the first four years under Trump 1.0,” Kirmani said.
While the DEI order only instructed Trump’s own agency heads to assess and dismantle diversity programs in their own workforces, his order on “gender ideology” has potential to have a broader impact on workplaces, Kirmani said. It rejects a Biden administration ruling that gender identify was protected by federal laws covering women’s college sports and workplace rights.
As an example, the action specifically calls for the rescinding of an EEOC policy that granted workers protection based on their gender identity. The agency, along with some others in the government, will now be ordered to take the opposite position on questions such as whether a transgender employee has workplace protection based on gender identity, Kirmani said.
“That’s probably subject to challenge,” she said. “Is this going to make private employers do anything different today? No.” But this is probably only the beginning, she said.
--With assistance from Skylar Woodhouse.
(Corrects description of EEOC in 13th paragraph)
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