Trump’s executive order put DEI in schools on 120-day notice 

In a sweeping executive order targeting discriminatory diversity, equity and inclusion programs (DEI), President Donald Trump gave schools and colleges receiving federal funding four months to end them. 

The order seeks to use existing laws, as laid out by the U.S. Supreme Court, to end race- and gender-based policies in society, including schools. 

The Trump order directs the attorney general and the secretary of education to issue guidance to all state and local education agencies as well as all institutions of higher education that receive federal funds, including student loans, on complying with the Supreme Court decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College. 

The president directed the guidance to be submitted no later than 120 days.   

The Students case was a landmark Supreme Court decision where the court found that DEI admission policies based on race are illegal.  

“Longstanding Federal civil-rights laws protect individual Americans from discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin,” said the president, setting out the purpose of the order. “These civil-rights protections serve as a bedrock supporting equality of opportunity for all Americans.  As President, I have a solemn duty to ensure that these laws are enforced for the benefit of all Americans.”  

The president noted that 60 years after passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, DEI practices have so infected American society that the federal government, “major corporations, financial institutions, the medical industry, large commercial airlines, law enforcement agencies, and institutions of higher education have adopted and actively use dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race- and sex-based preferences” using DEI.  

Under Trump’s first administration, the Department of Justice sided with the plaintiffs in the Students case.  

Trump’s attorney general at the time, Jeff Sessions, blasted Harvard for using race-based admission policies that targeted Asian-Americans as less “likeable” than black and Hispanic students and thus denied admission to Harvard.  

“No American should be denied admission to school because of their race,” said Sessions. 

In its opinion on Students, the Supreme Court noted, “Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it,” not just eliminating it for certain races.  

In another executive order, Trump rescinded a number of former President Joe Biden’s executive orders which sought to promote DEI. 

Specifically, Trump revoked:  

• Executive Order 13985, Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government, which sought to give minority communities access to more federal funding simply based on race. 

• Executive Order 13986, Ensuring a Lawful and Accurate Enumeration and Apportionment Pursuant to the Decennial Census, which allowed non-citizens to be counted for the purposes of setting Congressional representation.  

• Executive Order 13988, Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation, which sought to include gender identity as a protected class of people. 

Trump also gave the attorney general 120 days to advise the president on how to encourage the private sector to end illegal DEI practices.  

Trump also promised an enforcement mechanism to force companies to comply with laws that have made DEI practices illegal.    

The report should contain “recommendations for enforcing Federal civil-rights laws and taking other appropriate measures to encourage the private sector to end illegal discrimination and preferences, including DEI,” said the president.  

In a separate memo, Trump put all federal DEI officers and employees on paid leave, and eliminated DEI pages and language from government websites. 

The move signals permanent layoffs for all DEI staff, a plan for which must be presented by the end of January. 

In his inaugural address, Trump promised that in his very first week he would take steps to promote a society where racial and other differences wouldn’t matter and merit would be recognized.

“This week, I will also end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life,” said Trump. “We will forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based.”