One year into President Donald Trump’s second term, his diversity, equity and inclusion agenda continues to take shape.
The shifts started on Inauguration Day: Trump rescinded a Biden-era mandate that every agency create an equity team; the president also moved to slash DEI programs at government entities and federal contractors. Consideration of federal job candidates’ commitment to gender equity and an expansive, federal acknowledgment of gender identity were also scrapped that day.
Those early moves signaled a position that would reach far beyond that of the executive orders. “Trump’s anti-DEI orders not only gave a green light to discrimination across the economy,” Noreen Farrell, executive director of Equal Rights Advocates, told HR Dive via email: “They made this discrimination official government policy.”
Since then, the chilling effect has trickled into private-sector talent strategy.
