The Trump administration in 2025 has enacted sweeping rollbacks of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs that were widespread during the Biden years.
President Donald Trump signed several executive orders over the past year taking aim at so-called diversity efforts embedded in federal agencies, schools and the private sector. One analyst told the Daily Caller News Foundation that DEI is now viewed as being “toxic” by some U.S. businesses in the aftermath of Trump’s crackdown.
“One of the biggest changes to DEI in the private sector since the Trump [administration] came back into office is that ‘DEI’ has to a very meaningful extent become toxic, with a dwindling small number of corporations still using that acronym,” Stefan Padfield, executive director of the National Center’s Free Enterprise Project, told the DCNF. “Having said that, the neo-racism and neo-Marxism that DEI represents continues to fester in rebranded form in many corporations, so the battle to get corporations to stop discriminating in the name of anti-discrimination continues.”
“One of the biggest changes to DEI in the federal government since the Trump [administration] came back into office is that the whole-of-government approach to DEI has done a complete 180,” Padfield continued. “Under [former President Joe] Biden, corporations were actively encouraged to discriminate on the basis of race and sex. Now, they are on notice that sooner or later they will face the full force of prosecutorial and regulatory power if they continue to embrace neo-racism in the name of anti-racism.”
On his first day of taking office, Trump signed a Jan. 20 executive order to eliminate DEI programs he deemed “radical” and “wasteful,” as well as “preferencing” in the federal government. The president also signed a separate order in January intended to halt “illegal discrimination” from DEI policies across the nation and restore “merit-based opportunity.”
Many U.S.-based companies have been scrapping their diversity efforts over the past year. A variety of American corporations have similarly retreated from their involvement in LGBT pride events this year.
Job postings for diversity roles have dropped roughly 50% from pre-pandemic levels as of September, declining to roughly 1,500 total in 2025, Bloomberg reported on Oct. 20, citing data from Revelio Labs. However, analysts previously told the DCNF that some U.S. businesses may be quietly continuing to enact DEI policies instead of eliminating them — in an apparent effort to sidestep the administration’s ongoing DEI crackdown.
A spate of government agencies, including the Department of War, have been reassessing and rolling back DEI policies this year following Trump’s executive orders. War Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote in an April 18 social media post that DEI is now “dead” at the Pentagon.
Trump announced on May 30 that he was ousting Kim Sajet, the longtime director of the National Portrait Gallery, citing her being a “highly partisan person” and “strong supporter of DEI.” Additionally, the newly renamed Trump-Kennedy Center has made cuts to its DEI programs earlier this year as part of Trump’s massive overhaul of the performing arts center, The Hill reported in March.
Department of Justice (DOJ) Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Harmeet Dhillon said during a “Pod Force One” interview released on Dec. 10 that nearly 70% of her division’s workforce had quit due to factors such as Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts and having different views than the Trump administration.
“They quit, but like a bad ex, many of them keep talking about us, and saying they want us back, only on their same old toxic terms,” Dhillon wrote in a Dec. 10 X post. “No thanks! We’re going to keep working for ALL Americans!”
Moreover, several anonymous sources have lauded the FBI for scrapping its DEI programs this year, per a recent report. Vice President JD Vance said during a Sunday speech at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest that the administration has consigned DEI initiatives into “the dustbin of history.”
“To some extent, the American people will never be able to unsee the divisive, corrosive and illegal discrimination that is at the root of DEI,” Padfield stated. “So, even if leftists regain the presidency there will be popular resistance to a full-blown restoration of peak DEI.”
“On the other hand, the neo-Marxists pushing DEI are very well-versed at using the levers of power and will attempt to use all of it to reassert their neo-racist ideology throughout the country; they will view resistance as proof that they need to be even more coercive,” he added. “Those of us who believe in MLK’s [Martin Luther King Jr.’s] call to judge people by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin will have to be ready to continue to fight for that ideal.”
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