On the heels of Trump’s election win, the FBI shut down its DEI office. According to Donald Trump, that isn’t good enough.
In a post on Truth Social, the president-elect demanded that the FBI “preserve and retain” all of the documents previously possessed by the shuttered office. “The reason is, CORRUPTION” Trump explained as the impetus for his decision. Trump took a few parting shots at the DEI office, saying it”never should have been opened and, if it was, should have closed long ago.”
Whether or not Trump and his team will actually read the DEI office documents retained the FBI is another matter, and the answer is likely no. Trump’s trashing of the former FBI office is likely in service of a larger culture war that the president-elect is waging against DEI efforts across the nation. Republicans across all branches of government have been critical of DEI, and GOP House Majority leader Steve Scalise recently said DEI was partly to blame for the truck attack in New Orleans which claimed the lives of 14 – a tragedy which he claims could have been avoided if the FBI were less focused on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and more focused on security.
Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn expressed criticism for the FBI on Twitter, writing that the agency “should be focused on catching criminals, not winning participation awards.”
Trump’s Cabinet allies have expressed similar antipathy to DEI efforts in other government agencies, and Trump’s Department of Defense pick Pete Hegseth recently announced that he would purge DEI initiatives from the armed forces.
Trump’s DEI-bashing is part of a war on “woke” that Republicans have been waging for a long, long time. In the early years of the 2020s, rooting out “wokeness” became an obsession for Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who drafted numerous pieces of legislation in order to curb the spread of progressive ideas in his state. One of his most infamous laws was the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which barred educators for speaking about gender and sexuality in Florida schools. DeSantis also fought anti-woke battles in higher education spheres, and his “Stop WOKE” act sought to eliminate the discussion of race and gender in Florida universities. Both laws were contested by federal judges, who cited free speech violations as their primary reason to challenge the legislation.
While DeSantis may have lost key battles in the war on woke, Donald Trump’s tenure as presidency will ensure that conflict continues. Trump’s “first buddy” and DOGE chair Elon Musk has expressed his desire to rid the government of DEI, and will likely try to slash such efforts from all federal agencies as part of his greater cost cutting plans. Many in the private sector are following suit, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised to roll back DEI efforts in his own company in preparation for Trump’s second term. Amazon and McDonald’s have also reportedly downshifted their DEI efforts, and in some cases have halted them all together. Meanwhile at Microsoft, the company announced to its employees that it would be slowly scaling back DEI efforts, saying that they are no longer “business critical.”
The Trump administration’s plan to remove DEI initiatives across all branches of government are part of an effort to undo numerous Biden-era policies made to foster diversity and inclusion. On his first day in office, Biden signed an executive order in support of DEI practices as part of “government-wide initiative.” On Donald Trump’s first day in office, he’ll likely undo it all.
Published: Jan 18, 2025 03:01 am