The principles of diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace are a longtime target of President Donald Trump and the MAGA movement. Three new executive orders eliminate DEI from the federal government's hiring practices and encourage the private sector to follow suit.
On Monday, hours after he was sworn into office, Trump signed an order that rescinds DEI hiring practices enacted by President Joe Biden. Trump's order eliminates the roles of chief diversity officer and others overseeing anti-discrimination measures across the federal government. It instructs agencies to put the employees on paid leave, create plans to lay them off by the end of the month and remove DEI-related content from websites.
On Tuesday, Trump issued an order that directed the Federal Aviation Administration to stop DEI hiring practices and encouraged the private sector to "end illegal DEI discrimination and preferences and comply with all federal civil-rights laws."
And on Wednesday, he revoked a 60-year-old executive order banning discrimination in federal hiring practices that was signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Trump's order ends references to DEI in federal contracting and spending, requires contractors to follow its interpretation of civil rights laws and directs the government to focus on "speed and efficiency" instead of DEI, The New York Times reported.
The Trump administration threatened federal employees with "adverse consequences" if they fail to report co-workers attempting to defy the orders, The Times reported.
The measures illustrate Trump's pledge to gut a "government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life," as he stated in his inaugural speech.
"We will forge a society that is color blind and merit-based," he said.
Are private companies next?
Scholars and data suggest the private sector is far from color blind, and have raised concerns about the orders' implications beyond the federal workplace.
"There's no such thing as a meritocracy — this is a capitalist society," said Yasmin Dunn, a former vice president for diversity at Paramount who has worked on DEI issues. "I can be the best and brightest, but if I don't have the money and the connections to get into the rooms I need to be in, I'm not going anywhere."
Major corporations began scaling back DEI programs after a 2023 Supreme Court ruling that outlawed affirmative action in college admissions. Walmart, John Deere, Harley-Davidson and others rolled back their DEI initiatives the following year. Amazon, Meta and McDonald's did the same after Trump's reelection.
Right-leaning activist groups have been pressuring Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase to abandon or reduce their DEI efforts, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
DEI opponents scored another win in December. A conservative-majority appeals court narrowly ruled that publicly traded companies don't have to comply with Nadaq’s diversity rule that says they must have women and minority directors on their boards or explain why they don't.
Beyond his executive orders, Trump's administration may launch investigations and sue over corporate DEI initiatives they suspect of violating anti-discrimination laws, USA Today reported.
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The orders will likely produce a myriad of legal issues, said June Carbone, a law professor and author of "Fair Shake," a book that examines structural obstacles holding women back.
“What most people object to when it comes to DEI is an insistence that hiring produces a minimum number of diverse employees," Carbone said.
But if employers hire "friends, children's in-laws, people who give you money and people from your businesses — all of whom happen to be like you — you have created the opposite of merit-based selection and potentially a prima case of discrimination," she said.
The rise and fall of DEI
DEI came into focus after the 2020 murder of George Floyd, when corporations announced they would enact policies to diversify their leadership, boards and offices.
"I see a fair amount of companies and institutions keeping their commitment to DEI because they understand that diversity is good for workers and good for business"
Dunn said some of these initiatives were politically motivated and not well thought out, prompting an eventual backlash.
"DEI is not just a Band-Aid," Dunn said. "You've got to be very thoughtful and intentional about what you're doing, because what we're saying is we want to really hire people through this lens of diversity, equity and inclusion. In order to do that, we have to take a hard look at what we have been doing previously, and we have to be ready to interrogate the structures of our hiring process, of our company culture, and then we can begin to address some of the disparities."
Some notable companies haven't followed Trump’s direction. Apple and Microsoft are standing by their DEI initiatives, and Costco recently recommended that shareholders reject anti-DEI proposals. On Monday, Pinterest CEO Wanji Walcott wrote on LinkedIn that the company's "investments in a diverse and inclusive workforce with equitable opportunities" create "Immense value for users and advertisers alike."
"I see a fair amount of companies and institutions keeping their commitment to DEI because they understand that diversity is good for workers and good for business," Dunn said. "There are plenty of leaders who will continue to reap the benefits of diversity and they will stand out as we move forward the next four years."
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