President Donald Trump ordered the end of diversity, equity and inclusion programs across the federal government and moved to have officials working on them put on leave by the time they clock out from their jobs on Wednesday.
A memo sent by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management on Tuesday evening instructed the heads of federal departments and agencies to abolish the DEI colleagues in their midst by placing them on paid administrative leave by 5p.m. EST Wednesday and drafting a plan to get rid of them by the end of the month.
The order was part of a rapid attempt to carry out elements of an executive order Trump signed on his first day in office to end diversity programs, which the order claimed were “illegal and immoral.”
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Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt “gladly” confirmed the memo’s authenticity, in a post on X.
The OPM memo also told departments and agencies withdraw any DEI related internal documents, cancel any DEI trainings, sever any DEI related contracts, and take down any DEI-related websites or social media accounts.
Department and agency leaders are to tell DEI workers that their offices are shuttered. They were also instructed to question those employees if any DEI efforts remained “in disguise” at their departments.
To that end, the Trump administration is opening up what is effectively a snitch line to encourage government departments to rat out any remaining diversity initiatives or potentially face “adverse consequences.”
“We are aware of efforts by some in government to disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language. If you are aware of a change in any contract description or personnel position description since November 5, 2024 to obscure the connection between the contract and DEIA or similar ideologies, please report all facts and circumstances... within 10 days,” the memo reads.
The memo says “timely reporting” of these supposedly disguised diversity initiatives will be met with no reprisal, but that departments that fail to raise them within the 10-day period could face blowback.
Trump’s aggressive efforts to shut down diversity initiatives also extend to the private sector.
In a separate executive order signed Tuesday, the president urged companies to “end illegal DEI discrimination and preferences” and directed the attorney general to draw up a plan to discourage their adoption.
The Tuesday order tells agencies to draft a plan to potentially hound up to nine entities—publicly traded corporations, state bar associations, non-profits, universities—with “civil compliance investigations” into their DEI practices.
Several major American firms—including Walmart, McDonald’s, Meta and Ford—have rolled back DEI initiatives in recent months as the private sector has faced escalating pressure from conservative groups. They have typically cited a 2023 Supreme Court decision to strike down affirmative action at colleges and universities as putting them on sound legal grounding.
The orders also includes a review of spaces that have been renamed under DEI initiatives. It’s unclear how they will affect the private sector. A Trump administration official Monday advised businesses to “wait and see” how further guidance will pertain to them.
