05 Mar The So-Called Death of DEI: The Recent Efforts By The Trump Administration To Abolish DEI Efforts

2025 has welcomed a new presidential administration and, in return, has been met with shattering force. At a near-constant velocity, this entire administration has dominated headline after headline. From broadly scoped executive orders to extreme bureaucratic nominations, every day since inauguration has brought a new event to discuss, an effect to examine, or a past to survey. Throughout this intentional chaos, there have been a few dominant narratives that have been focused on the new administration’s messaging. One of these ideas flaunted has been the eradication of DEI initiatives, villainized to be against merit. 

However misguided and inaccurate these boasts are, they have still led to grave effects. One of many expansive executive orders that President Trump signed has called for the termination of all DEI programs in the federal government. At the same time, there has been a tidal wave of private companies and public institutions rescinding programs or walking back on goals. To say it is anything but a bleak landscape for diversity programs is ignorant, but too quickly, there has been an assertion that DEI is dead and gone. Like most things, the truth is far more nuanced, which is what this blog post will explore. It will discuss what efforts have been made to abolish DEI programs, what resistance has been undertaken, and what this means for the future. 

Trump, during his campaign, ran heavily on anti-diversity rhetoric. In doing so, he placed his nebulous definition of DEI in the crosshairs. DEI could mean any vast number of things, as it ranged from radical leftism to anti-whiteness attitudes. This method rings extremely similar to the villainization efforts of Critical Race Theory in 2020, where somehow it became defined so broadly it encompassed everything and anything. Much like the discourse around CRT, Trump turned his rhetoric into action. After his election in November, there began a colossal preemptive shift from companies in their attempts to cozy up to the new administration. 

Massive firms from Google, Pepsi, Disney, and GE rolled back their stated goals for advancing diversity in investor reports and public comments. Most of these have been done through the stated goal of aligning with the current political climate. To their credit, the climate was dangerous. As stated before, one of Trump’s first signed executive orders called for ending DEI federal government programs. While it is hard to know what this truly means in practice, agencies like the Department of Defense have taken the initiative to ban what they call cultural awareness holidays, such as Pride and Women’s History Month. Beyond this, Trump has also singled out DEI in education as a major enemy, instructing the Department of Education to withhold funding to schools with DEI programs in effect. 

Undoubtedly, there has been an extreme wielding of executive power to eradicate DEI programs and enact Trump’s vision. This has been combined with a continual verbal assault by all members of the new administration, most infamously occurring when Trump was quoted attributing the military helicopter crash in Washington, D.C, as being the result of DEI programs. Such vile language and willingness to use broad executive power have led many companies and institutions to a difficult decision to either lose federal funding and sizable contracts or maintain their previously stated initiatives. If one chooses to resist their new administration’s efforts, they risk creating a very powerful enemy. Again, as stated prior, it cannot be understated the attack DEI programs across the country are facing on all levels of civil and political society.

Doomerism, however, should not be the dominant ideological belief, as there has been sizable resistance in the face of rampant political force. This resistance has often been overshadowed in recent weeks, with the Trump administration’s actions being the sole prioritized coverage. Some of this resistance includes private companies that have maintained their prior practices and diversity goals despite conservative pressure to abolish them. 

Companies like Apple, JPMorgan Chase, and Costco are among the few that have engaged in this resistance. Costco, in particular, was among the first companies to state their continual practice of DEI programs, and as a result, civil rights activist Al Sharpton engaged in a buy-in at one of the company’s locations. A buy-in is the opposite of a boycott, where people intentionally use their purchasing power to support a company and their policies. 

The public sector has also engaged in its own methods of resistance. Education has been the most visual example of this, where school boards, college regents, and state education departments have all faced the choice of staying silent or resisting and may have chosen resistance. They have promised to maintain their prior practices, decry foul rhetoric in the orders, or plainly ignore them. Both of these examples present a much more nuanced reality than the eulogy of DEI being presented in popular narratives. 

Much like the current, the future, although bleak, does offer sustainable avenues of resistance. The most glaring approach is through the use of the court system and lawsuits. 

The recent efforts by Trump to limit federal funding for schools as a way to ban DEI programs have been stopped by a judge. This approach has remnants of the prior Trump term, in which the notorious travel ban was prevented through judicial interjections. The judiciary can be a tool to avoid the worst abuses and must be thoroughly empowered to do so. 

In addition, private companies like Costco should be thoroughly supported by the public for the continental support, as withholding purchasing power from anti-DEI companies and utilizing them elsewhere is an achievable individual goal that can lead to collective success. However, despite this, there should be little complacency of this administration or an expectation that they will not push further. More extreme and radical applications of the executive apparatus will be used within the coming months and years. No one can truly predict what a next move may look like and what norms may be violated in order to achieve it. People must remain vigilant at all times, as although the eulogy for DEI should not be written yet, without support, there may be a time when it is required. 

By Toby Keeler

If you haven’t yet had the opportunity, make sure to order a copy of Elmer Dixon’s powerful memoir DIE STANDING: From Black Panther Revolutionary to Global Diversity Consultant and check out what others have been saying about Elmer and his story.

Check out these other opportunities to see what folks are saying about Elmer and his continued work.

• See Elmer speak at Stories from the Revolutions’ Front Lines at his keynote at TEDxUTulsa
• Listen to Elmer talk on NPR’s The Jefferson Exchange
• Read about Elmer’s story in a piece featured in The Seattle Times
• Listen to Elmer on The Medium