Trump Admin Poised to Tackle DEI on Multiple Fronts

Trump’s statements on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives signal an administration that will target them in both government and private organizations.

President-elect Donald Trump speaks at AmericaFest in Phoenix, on Dec. 22, 2024. Rick Scuteri/AP Photo

News Analysis

President-elect Donald Trump’s statements and appointees have indicated an interest in ending diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs within the federal government while challenging their use in private organizations.

If his first term is any indication, he will likely use executive orders to end the promotion of DEI or critical race theory within federal agencies. Specifically, he could use the federal government to reform education, bar diversity training within the federal government, and use the Department of Justice (DOJ) to sue over perceived reverse discrimination in employment and college admissions.

His nominee for secretary of defense, former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, has expressed opposition to DEI, as has Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr.

Trump’s decision to nominate Harmeet Dhillon to lead the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division indicated a willingness to bring lawsuits against corporations and universities employing race-based policies.

Dhillon graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law and clerked for a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. She leads The Dhillon Law Group and served as a legal adviser for Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign.

“Throughout her career, Harmeet has stood up consistently to protect our cherished Civil Liberties, including taking on Big Tech for censoring our Free Speech, representing Christians who were prevented from praying together during COVID, and suing corporations who use woke policies to discriminate against their workers,” the president-elect said on Truth Social in December.

Dhillon’s firm represented James Damore, the Google employee who alleged that the company had a bias against white men and conservatives.

John Shu, a constitutional law expert who served in both Bush administrations, told The Epoch Times that “Harmeet—who, if confirmed, would be the first Indian-American and Sikh American to serve as Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division—is a very experienced lawyer who cares deeply about America and America’s future.”

Regarding DEI, he said, “Harmeet will follow the law and existing Supreme Court precedent.”

Shu then referred to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts’s opinion in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District. No. 1, which questioned a school district’s decision to use race as a factor in assigning students to particular schools.

“The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race,” Roberts wrote.

In 2023, the Supreme Court held that the use of race in admissions by Harvard University and the University of North Carolina violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. Shu told The Epoch Times that Dhillon could use the power of the DOJ to enforce that holding.

Trump has praised the Supreme Court’s decision on college admissions and said he will use the DOJ and Department of Education to open civil rights investigations into school districts that have engaged in race-based discrimination.

Dhillon’s and Hegseth’s nominations came after years of controversy surrounding those types of policies within corporations and government agencies at the federal, state, and local levels.

Multiple companies, such as Ford, Harley-Davidson, Molson Coors, Toyota, and Walmart, have rolled back their DEI initiatives in recent months.

Trump’s statements on DEI point to an administration that will target initiatives both within and outside the DOJ. His first term saw the signing of an executive order in September 2020 aimed at ending requirements that promote divisiveness and “distract from the pursuit of excellence and collaborative achievements in public administration.”

President Joe Biden quickly revoked that executive order when he entered office in 2021.

Chris Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, penned an open letter outlining various steps for tackling the issue in Trump’s second term. Among them are rescinding Biden’s order that revoked Trump’s September 2020 order, as well as a directive aimed at “advancing the principle of colorblind equality.”

Another tool in Trump’s targeting of DEI could be the Department of Education. Before leaving office in 2021, his administration released the 1776 Commission report, which stated that “we must stand up to the petty tyrants in every sphere who demand that we speak only of America’s sins while denying her greatness.”

His campaign site stated that Trump would “impose real standards on American colleges and universities, to include defending the American tradition and Western civilization, protecting free speech, eliminating wasteful administrative positions that drive up costs, [and] removing all DEI bureaucrats.”

Trump also vowed to cut federal funding for schools pushing critical race theory and to favor school districts that adopt a parental bill of rights with curriculum transparency.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has said it will fight Trump’s policies in court.

“Policies eradicating DEI programming and curricula are not only unlawful; they also actively undermine students’ ability to thrive,” the group said in a memo on its expectations for Trump’s second term.

The ACLU said the Trump administration’s “ultimate goal would be the eradication of all programs designed to address profound and persistent inequalities in American life – with the effect of further entrenching, and indeed worsening, systemic inequalities in access to education, health care, and economic opportunity.”

More specifically, the ACLU warned about the prospect of Trump’s continuing reported efforts from his first term to alter enforcement of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits racial discrimination by recipients of federal funding, by no longer focusing on instances where the practice at issue had a “disparate impact” on particular groups.

Eliminating DEI may involve addressing the executive system and its regulations, a task that Trump is likely to approach through his advisers at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a proposed presidential advisory commission.

One of those advisers, Vivek Ramaswamy, said in a November social media post that “efficient government has no place for DEI bloat.”

Ramaswamy and his DOGE co-chair, Elon Musk, have both pointed to the Supreme Court’s decision in Loper Bright v. Raimondo, which altered a longstanding precedent requiring courts to defer to agencies’ reasonable interpretations of laws.

The ending of that precedent, by overturning the Chevron deference doctrine, was supported by advocates of deregulation, but it doesn’t necessarily favor across-the-board efforts at ending regulations. Instead, it forces courts to make determinations about the law rather than deferring to agencies.

Jacob Burg contributed to this report.