Numerous current and former government employees are complaining and commiserating about the end of internal federal diversity programs in a private Facebook group, images of which have been obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The bureaucrats — mostly current or former employees of the Department of the Interior’s (DOI) National Park Service (NPS) — likened President Donald Trump’s newly-announced push to root out internal federal “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI) programs to McCarthyism and sharply criticized Trump’s orders on the issue. The Trump administration has vowed to discipline federal employees who resist implementing the anti-DEI policy and sent memos to agency personnel with an email address to use for reporting attempts to sidestep the new guidelines.
A Wednesday post to the group by an employee of the Department of Agriculture (USDA), included a screenshot of an email that was sent to USDA employees this week outlining Trump’s new policy on DEI. The email featured in the post included the tip line email address to report violations of the new Trump policy.
A Wednesday Facebook post to the “National Park Service Employees” group. (Screenshot obtained by Daily Caller News Foundation)
“Email I received earlier from USDA about ending [DEI] programs. It’s like the 1950s when they were asking people to rat out their neighbors for being a suspected communist,” the USDA employee wrote in the post.
“For those still in federal employment, reminder that as part of the job you have sworn to uphold and defend the constitution. Not making this as a hint for this specific screenshot, but just in general,” one former USDA employee commented.
One former NPS employee replied that “Senator McCarthy is smiling in his grave,” while another member of the group wrote that “fascists don’t change.”
“The fear and cruelty are the point. Don’t forget the other elected officials and retired politicians who are complicit by remaining silent in the face of the destruction of civil service protections,” wrote another commenter who worked for NPS as recently as 2023. Another current NPS employee sarcastically suggested that it “sure would be a shame if they had to sift through a bunch of bogus claims” submitted to the tip line email address included in the message.
A Wednesday Facebook post to the “National Park Service Employees” group. (Screenshot obtained by Daily Caller News Foundation)
A Wednesday Facebook post to the “National Park Service Employees” group. (Screenshot obtained by Daily Caller News Foundation)
The DOI is “working expeditiously” to implement the president’s new anti-DEI order, a spokesperson for the Trump DOI told the DCNF.
A second Wednesday post to the NPS employees Facebook group encouraged members to “be brave” in the face of Trump’s crackdown on DEI inside the federal bureaucracy.
“be brave but be careful with what you post, fellow current nps employees. i’d like to believe this is really a private group but the owner of [Facebook] is a new best buddy of someone…” an individual who worked as a NPS administrator as recently as 2023 commented in the group, which is called “National Park Service Employees.”
The author of the post appeared to suggest that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg — whose company recently axed its own DEI programs — may bring posts made in the group to the Trump administration’s attention. Zuckerberg was one of several technology executives to attend Trump’s inauguration. The DCNF did not obtain information about the Facebook group or its contents from Zuckerberg.Â
A Wednesday Facebook post to the “National Park Service Employees” group. (Screenshot obtained by Daily Caller News Foundation)
“Don’t let the new regime silence you. There is no more important part of our society than the dedicated, capable civil servants of our country!” a former NPS employee commented in response to the post. “Thank you for your service!”
Notably, that same commenter suggested that the tip line for reporting continued DEI activity is reminiscent of “the Nazi youth being asked to rat out their parents” in a post to her own personal Facebook page.
“It is deeply concerning, yet hardly surprising that unelected bureaucrats at the Interior Department are already sleuthing and scheming to undermine the duly-elected President and push their own radical agenda,” a former Trump DOI official who is not authorized to speak on behalf of the administration told the DCNF. “The American people gave President Trump a historic mandate to lead, and public servants should be expected to uphold their duties with integrity—not engage in covert efforts to obstruct the administration’s work.”
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