In his first week in office, President Trump swiftly undid the work of his predecessor, Joe Biden, by signing a series of executive orders and closing down all federal agencies dealing with diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI).
Shortly after assuming the oath of office on January 20, the president issued an executive order dismantling all federal DEI programs. In addition, he went ahead and issued an executive order declaring that “the official policy of the U.S. government to only recognize two genders: male and female.”
One day later, the president issued an order to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) instructing agency and department heads to close all DEI offices and put federal employees working there on paid leave.
This swift action necessitated the removal of all final outstanding paperwork, directives, orders, materials, and equitable plans, as well as the immediate removal of all outward facing media (websites, social media profiles, and more) for those DEI offices.
Elon Musk, who is in charge of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), said that the federal government saved $420 million after Trump terminated current and future contracts that were centered around DEI activities.
On the same day, the president issued not one but two executive orders addressing DEI.
Under the pretense of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), one executive order sought to eradicate racial and gender bias in hiring and in academic institutions.
One was a letter to do away with a policy that the Biden administration had instituted at the FAA that gave preference to DEI candidates for employment.
The FAA administrator and secretary of transportation were instructed by Trump to immediately discontinue Biden’s DEI employment initiatives and reinstate nondiscriminatory, merit-based hiring in the memorandum that reversed Biden’s DEI hiring practices at the FAA.
In addition, Trump demanded that the FAA administrator look at the track records and expectations of all personnel in key safety roles inside the agency. He wants it made plain that if someone doesn’t show they can do the job, they’ll be replaced with someone who can.
“Illegal and discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) hiring, including on the basis of race, sex, disability, or any other criteria other than the safety of airline passengers and overall job excellence, competency, and qualification, harms all Americans, who deserve to fly with confidence,” according to the memo.
It said: “All so-called DEI initiatives, including all dangerous preferencing policies or practices, shall immediately be rescinded in favor of hiring, promoting, and otherwise treating employees on the basis of individual capability, competence, achievement, and dedication.”
“Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government,” Biden’s directive on diversity efforts that Trump had signed on his first day in office in 2021, was also revoked by Trump.
Also in February, the DOE issued a warning to state education departments, stating that they would lose federal money unless they removed DEI rules.
That action followed Trump’s executive orders mandating that federal agencies devise a strategy to withdraw support for “illegal and discriminatory treatment and indoctrination in K-12 schools, including based on gender ideology and discriminatory equity ideology.”
The private sector likewise ended DEI initiatives in response to the president’s attempts to stop them nationwide.
Similar to McDonald’s, Meta ended its DEI initiatives in January. Additionally, DEI projects were terminated by Walmart, Ford Motor Co., John Deere, Lowe’s, and Toyota following the 2024 election.
Changes to DEI rules were implemented as recently as April by IBM, Gannett, and Constellation Brands Inc., according to Forbes. Major League Baseball, Victoria’s Secret, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount, Bank of America, BlackRock, Citigroup, Pepsi, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Coca-Cola, Deloitte, PBS, Google, Disney, GE, PayPal, Chipotle, and a host of other companies reduced or eliminated their DEI initiatives in early 2025.
At the same time, in March, the NIH reversed its “Scientific Integrity Policy” that had been put in place to remove DEI requirements during Biden’s final weeks in office.
That policy from Biden’s administration emphasized DEI as a “integral” aspect of “the entire scientific process,” and it directed the head scientist at the National Institutes of Health to “promote agency efforts regarding diversity, equity and inclusion.” Additionally, it mandated agency-wide policy instructions that ask NIH supervisors to “support” researchers and scientists who identify as “asexual” or “intersex,” and it asks NIH leadership to “confer with relevant offices” when more DEI knowledge is required.
A representative from the Health and Human Services Department named Andrew Nixon stated that the Biden administration used the National Institutes of Health’s scientific integrity policy as a weapon to introduce discriminatory gender ideology and DEI into scientific studies. “Rescinding this (scientific integrity) policy will allow NIH to restore science to its golden standard and protect the integrity of science.”
One DEI program that received about $165,000 from the Biden administration aimed at “queering the curriculum” to help family doctors manage transgender patients. The funding for certain projects has been cut.
Meanwhile, AWN Digital has learned from numerous government agencies that LinkedIn has lost millions of dollars in contracts due to the company’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
In response to executive orders prohibiting federal agencies from entering into contracts with businesses that adhere to DEI rules, the Treasury, Interior, and Veterans Affairs departments all decided to discontinue their use of LinkedIn.
“The Biden administration wasted so much money on contracts like these,” said an Interior Department spokesman who talked to AWN Digital, adding that every American taxpayer should be furious about it. “Under the leadership of President Trump, we have been combing through hundreds of thousands of contracts here at the Department alone and are canceling wasteful, woke, and downright ridiculous contracts that do not align with the will of the American people.”
“Like every business, the organizations that use our products change, often driven by shifts in their budgets and priorities,” a LinkedIn spokeswoman told AWN Digital in response. As always, our first priority is seeing to it that our clients reach their goals.