President Donald Trump Said DEI Programs Were “Dangerous, Demeaning, and Immoral”

President Donald Trump's second term started with a controversial bang when he signed a slew of executive orders on his first day. According to AXIOS, they focused on immigration, the Paris Climate Treaty, transgender Americans, and Jan. 6 defendants charged with participating in the Capitol riot.

He also turned his attention to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in the workplace, describing them as "dangerous, demeaning, and immoral" in an executive order that called for an end to them. The president then put all federal DEI employees on paid administrative leave. Here's what we know.

In his executive order, President Trump says that DEI programs are in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. "These civil-rights protections serve as a bedrock supporting equality of opportunity for all Americans," he wrote. "As President, I have a solemn duty to ensure that these laws are enforced for the benefit of all Americans."

He goes on to say that DEI programs diminish the "importance of individual merit, aptitude, hard work, and determination when selecting people for jobs and services in key sectors of American society, including all levels of government, and the medical, aviation, and law-enforcement communities." The president claims that this type of discrimination prioritizes people based on how they were born, versus what they can do.

With the stroke of his pen, President Trump ordered the shuttering of all DEI mandates, policies, programs, activities, guidance, regulations, enforcement actions, consent orders, and requirements. In a memo released by the Office of Personnel Management, and obtained by the Associate Press, DEI staffers were to be put on paid administrative leave by 5 p.m. on Jan. 22, 2025. Organizations would also have to remove all DEI-related pages on their websites by the same deadline.

In September 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed an executive order called the Equal Employment Opportunity order which prohibited "federal contractors and federally‐assisted construction contractors and subcontractors, who do over $10,000 in Government business in one year from discriminating in employment decisions on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or national origin." This was one of several discrimination-based executive orders the president revoked.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement, "President Trump campaigned on ending the scourge of DEI from our federal government and returning America to a merit-based society where people are hired based on their skills, not for the color of their skin." President Trump's executive order also urges the private sector to "end DEI discrimination" and programs.