Trump’s proposal to eliminate DEI programs is unlikely to succeed.
Targeting employment practices, grant money, and educational policies, the next administration of President-elect Donald Trump is getting ready to reverse diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs that were ingrained in government agencies under President Joe Biden.
- Executive Orders: Trump plans to repeal Biden s DEI-related executive orders and reinstate his own 2020 order banning race and sex stereotyping in federal programs.
- Legal Challenges: Critics argue DEI initiatives often violate existing anti-discrimination laws, with lawsuits already blocking federal programs such as the Minority Business Development Agency.
- Congressional Action: The Dismantle DEI Act, introduced by Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, aims to eliminate federal DEI offices and bar federal contracts and grants that promote DEI principles.
Trump’s plan to dismantle DEI programs has the potential to change government policy and spark national discussions on merit-based hiring and racial neutrality.
The incoming administration has a lot of work ahead of it to fulfill President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to eradicate woke ideology, following four years of the Biden administration integrating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) into almost every facet of government.
Legal experts and DEI opponents told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the Trump administration will have to address everything from grant funding decisions to agency hiring procedures and internal trainings.
The Trump administration must start by rescinding Biden’s executive orders that ingrained DEI throughout the executive branch of government, according to Gail Heriot, a law professor at the University of San Diego, who spoke to the DCNF.
A whole-of-government equity agenda was formed by President Joe Biden’s executive order on day one, which instructed all agencies to carry out an equality review. His executive order on DEI in the federal workforce, issued in June 2021, mandated that agencies include DEI concepts into hiring and promotion procedures and provide training programs for staff members that educate them about systematic racism.
Additionally, Trump can revive his executive order from September 2020, which was revoked by Biden, to battle sex and racial stereotypes.
According to the directive, while the concepts pushed by DEI trainings may be popular in academia, they have no place in initiatives and programs funded by federal taxpayers.
Terminating DEI hiring practices in federal agencies may be another early goal. DEI opponents also contend that Trump should eliminate grants and programs that distribute funding according to a person’s identity.
William Jacobson, a professor at Cornell Law School and the founder of the Equal Protection Project, told the DCNF that the Trump administration must, first and foremost, use its authority over federal agencies and programs to enforce current laws against discrimination in contracts, grants, and funding. Numerous DEI practices are in violation of existing anti-discrimination laws and regulations.
Conservative groups have already filed lawsuits that have put some programs, such those operated by the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA), in legal hot water. In March, a federal judge ruled that the MBDA’s goal of assisting minority-owned companies in obtaining government contracts and funding was unconstitutional, stating that it was not allowed to screen applicants based on their race.
More than ten percent of grant money by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the Biden-Harris administration went toward research initiatives that support DEI, according to a new report issued by Republican Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
Taking Offence
The Trump administration may target comparable initiatives in corporate America and education while eliminating internal DEI programs.
According to Jacobson, the Trump administration should require that the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights take swift, decisive action in response to DEI discrimination allegations while it contemplates dismantling or restructuring the agency. In the last 18 months, our Equal Protection Project (EPP, EqualProtect.org) has filed almost 50 complaints against schools and universities, yet OCR has frequently taken a long time to respond.
The EPP has complained to colleges about tuition reduction programs, scholarships, and fellowships that use race as an eligibility criterion since the Supreme Court invalidated affirmative action in higher education last year.
GianCarlo Canaparo, senior legal scholar at the Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, told the DCNF that the DOJ’s Office of Civil Rights should target educational institutions, employers, and nonprofit organizations that provide resources based on race.
High-profile targets can be sued for a lot of good, but small targets should also be sued since there are more of them and it will send a strong message that you’re not too little to break anti-discrimination laws, he added.
Because of the results, OCR has filed lawsuits against police and fire departments under Biden for employment practices that it believes to be discriminatory. Black candidates passed the written exam at a lower rate than white applicants, while women did worse on the physical test than men. As a result, the Maryland police department agreed to a compensation of more than $2 million.
Legislative Action
Congress must make the most significant adjustments.
Democrats will eventually regain control of all those agencies, and they will employ these tools if they are available, Canaparo stated.
Canaparo stated that Congress ought to revoke the 1991 Amendment to Title VII, which he claims contributed to the creation of DEI.
Even if a policy appears neutral on the surface, the amendment makes it unlawful to establish measures that disproportionately affect minorities.
According to Heriot, Congress should eliminate the incentives that colleges and universities have to provide racial preferences. This includes removing accreditors’ power to determine the racial makeup of student bodies and terminating federal programs that support institutions with larger minority enrollments.
By taking into account adversity scores or asking admission essay questions about various facets of a prospective student’s identity, colleges have tried to get around the Supreme Court’s affirmative action decision.
The Dismantle DEI Act of 2024, which would abolish all government DEI programs and forbid federal grant funding and contracts from supporting DEI, was introduced in June by Vice President-elect J.D. Vance and Representative Michael Cloud. On Thursday, the bill was approved by the House Oversight Committee.
Trump would go down in history as one of the greatest presidents for the promise of racial neutrality in America if his mission to eradicate woke prejudice is successful, Canaparo added.
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