Trump puts all US government diversity staff on paid leave ‘immediately’

President Donald Trump has ordered that all US government staff working on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) schemes be put on immediate paid administrative leave.

In an executive order late on Tuesday, he called for an end to the “dangerous, demeaning and immoral” programmes.

The White House confirmed that all federal DEI staff had to be put on leave by 17:00 EST (22:00 GMT) on Wednesday, before the offices and programmes in question were shut down.

Since re-taking office on Monday, Trump has acted swiftly on a number of key pledges through a raft of unilateral actions. He repeatedly attacked DEI practices on the campaign trail, arguing that they were discriminatory.

DEI programmes aim to promote participation in workplaces by people from a range of backgrounds.

Their backers say they address historical underrepresentation and discrimination against certain groups including racial minorities, but critics say such programmes can themselves be discriminatory.

In his inaugural address on Monday, Trump pledged to “forge a society that is colour-blind and merit-based”.

Tuesday’s executive order took aim at what it called the “illegal” policies of DEI and DEIA (diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility), framing them as being in opposition to US law.

It said these policies had the capability to “violate” important underlying civil rights laws that protect Americans from discrimination.

The order further asserted that DEI programmes “undermine our national unity” as they denied “traditional” values in favour of an “identity-based spoils system”.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the move “is another win for Americans of all races, religions, and creeds”, and fulfils a campaign promise made by Trump.

The memo seen by CBS was sent from the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to heads of government agencies. As well as instructing them to place DEI employees on leave, it made a number of requests including the removal of public websites for DEIA offices.

It also orders that federal hiring, promotions and performance reviews “reward individual initiative” rather than “DEI-related factors”, and revokes a 1965 executive order signed by former President Lyndon B Johnson that makes it illegal for federal contractors to discriminate on the basis of “race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or national origin” in their hiring.

By Thursday, federal agencies must compile a list of DEI offices and workers, the order declares. By 31 January, agencies must submit “a written plan” for executing lay-offs in DEI offices.

The order also requires the attorney general to submit, within 120 days, recommendations “to encourage the private sector” to end similar diversity efforts.

Tuesday’s order comes on the heels of another one that pledged to put to an end programmes deemed “radical and wasteful” by Trump.

That one, signed on Monday, declares that all DEI offices, positions and programmes be terminated within 60 days, “to the maximum extent allowed by law”.

It is unclear how many government employees would be affected by these orders.

Several large US companies have ended or scaled back their DEI programmes in recent weeks, including McDonald’s, Walmart and Facebook parent company Meta.

Others, like Apple and retailers Target and Costco, have publicly defended their DEI programmes.