President Donald Trump orders all federal diversity staff be put on leave ‘immediately’
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The move revoked President Lyndon Johnson’s protection of workers against discrimination. President Donald Trump has instructed all federal diversity, equity and inclusion staff be put on paid leave “immediately” and eventually be laid off. It follows an executive order signed by Trump on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs that touch on everything from anti-bias training to funding for minority farmers and homeowners.
![[Prominent companies have already scaled back their diversity practices in response to Trump’s election]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/22/10/76de99b7f103a702a63f1311e0d56efeY29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzM3NjI0OTAx-2.78702014.jpg)
The move revoked President Lyndon Johnson’s protection of workers against discrimination based on race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or national origin. The executive order also accused former President Joe Biden of forcing “discrimination” programmes into “virtually all aspects of the federal government” through “diversity, equity and inclusion” programmes, known as DEI.
Civil rights advocates have argued such programs are necessary to address longstanding inequities and structural racism. Trump has called the programmes “discrimination” and insisted on restoring strictly “merit-based” hiring. The Office of Personnel Management has directed agencies to place DEI office staffers on paid leave, take down all public DEI-focused webpages and cancel any DEI-related training by 5pm on Wednesday.
Several federal departments had removed the webpages even before the memorandum. The executive order picks up where Trump’s first administration left off: One of Trump’s final acts during his first term was an executive order banning federal agency contractors and recipients of federal funding from conducting anti-bias training that addressed concepts like systemic racism.
