Will Potter writes for DailyMail.com about one of President Trump’s earliest actions.
Donald Trump quickly made good on his pledge to sever diversity, equity and inclusion policies in the federal government as he is set to lay off all DEI hires within 24 hours.
The new Trump administration sent a letter to all heads and acting heads of government agencies on Tuesday, informing them all federal employees in DEI roles must be placed on paid leave by 5 pm Wednesday.
All DEI offices in federal agencies are also being shuttered in the move, which comes after Trump signed an anti-DEI executive order in front of a cheering crowd at his inauguration on Monday.
In a letter first obstained by CBS News, the agencies were ordered to ‘take prompt actions’ against all departments ‘focusing exclusively on DEI initiatives and programs.’
The letter also demands all public DEI focused webpages be taken offline, and orders employees within the departments to report ‘any efforts to disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language.’
Any employees that are aware of ‘coded or imprecise language’ intended to keep DEI programs alive but do not report them within 10 days are warned of ‘adverse consequences.’
Trump’s executive order, titled ‘Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing and Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions’, directly reverses a DEI executive order enacted by President Biden on his first day in office four years ago. Tuesday’s order concludes: ‘These programs divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars, and resulted in shameful discrimination.’
After all DEI hires are placed on leave by 5pm Wednesday, agencies are ordered to develop plans to lay off each employee that was hired under DEI policies, with a deadline of next Friday given to develop a list for a ‘reduction in force action.’
Agencies must then report to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on ‘all steps taken’ to remove DEI programs by January 23. …