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Amy Sherman
By Amy Sherman January 22, 2025

Trump orders DEI workers placed on leave

President Donald Trump's administration set a deadline of 5 p.m. Jan. 22 to place on leave federal workers in diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, known as DEI, one part of his effort to end all federal involvement in such programs.

A Jan. 20 memo from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management provided guidance on the order's execution, but did not say how many workers this will affect. We emailed that office's media contact and received no immediate response. The number should emerge later this month because the memo directs agencies to report back a list of employees who worked in DEI offices.

The memo follows Trump's first-day executive order terminating all DEI mandates, policies and programs. That order aligns with Trump's campaign promise to revoke federal initiatives on DEI. Specifically, Trump promised to revoke Biden's order requiring federal agencies to write plans showing how they would advance racial equity and support underserved communities. 

Trump's promise to revoke federal DEI initiatives is one of 75 he made that PolitiFact is tracking on the MAGA-Meter. Over the next four years, we will periodically evaluate the new administration's progress on Trump's 2024 campaign promises, just as we did with Barack Obama, Trump during his first term and Joe Biden.

DEI initiatives broadly include efforts to increase diversity in ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, age, culture, class, religion and opinion. Sometimes, the federal communications referred to the initiatives as DEIA, which stands for diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility.

Memo includes deadlines to close offices, place workers on leave and collect data

The Jan. 20 memo stated that by the Jan. 22 deadline, agencies must:

  • Send agency-wide communications announcing the closure of DEIA offices and ask whether they know of efforts to "disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language."

  • Send a notice to all employees of DEIA offices placing them on paid administrative leave.

  • Take down all websites and social media accounts for DEIA offices

The memo also stated that agencies have until noon Jan. 23 to report to the Office of Personnel Management a list of any employee who worked in DEI. These agencies have until 5 p.m. Jan. 31 to write a plan "for executing a reduction-in-force action."

Executive orders are not legislative actions by Congress so they can be rescinded by future presidents, nullified by Congress or challenged in the courts, said Leonard Bright, a professor at Texas A&M University's Bush School of Government and Public Service.

In September 2020, Trump signed an order about "combating race and sex stereotyping" that set rules for employee and contractor trainings. That order faced a legal challenge from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and led to an injunction. When Biden took office, he reversed Trump's order. 

Trump's new order will likely face similar hurdles, Bright said. However, it amounts to a "symbolic rallying cry against DEI programs. Even though his first order was unenforceable federally, it led conservative majority states to pass their own legislation against these programs. This trend will likely continue over the next four years which is posed to remake the landscape in this area."

Florida, Tennessee, Texas and Utah are among the states that passed laws or established rules to ban DEI.

We asked the NAACP Legal Defense Fund whether it plans to challenge Trump's new order and 

Jin Hee Lee, director of strategic initiatives, said it is "currently examining all available options," describing Trump's executive orders as "alarming," "dangerous" and a threat to equal protection and anti-discrimination laws.

Memo ends FAA hiring policy 

Trump also signed a memorandum terminating a Biden administration Federal Aviation Administration policy about hiring. The memo said "almost unbelievably" the FAA "specifically recruited and hired individuals with 'severe intellectual' disabilities, psychiatric issues, and complete paralysis over other individuals who sought to work for the FAA."

The Biden-era guidelines set a hiring goal of 3% per year for people with targeted severe disabilities including psychiatric and intellectual impairments, complete and partial paralysis, blindness, deafness, missing extremities, epilepsy and dwarfism.

The idea of the federal government hiring people with disabilities was not new under Biden.

In 2019, during Trump's first term, the FAA announced a "program to help prepare people with disabilities for careers in air traffic operations" with job candidates receiving "the same rigorous consideration in terms of aptitude, medical and security qualifications as those individuals considered for a standard public opening for air traffic controller jobs."

It said the agency would "identify specific opportunities for people with targeted disabilities, empower them and facilitate their entry into a more diverse and inclusive workforce." However the link was broken, so we could not see which disabilities were targeted. 

In 2009, when Obama was president, the FAA launched a website to help people with severe disabilities find federal jobs. 

The Americans with Disabilities Act protects people with disabilities from discrimination, including employment.

In issuing his Jan. 20 executive order and delivering same-day administrative guidance, Trump and his administration have taken the first steps toward fulfilling Trump's promise to revoke federal initiatives on DEI. 

We will keep  tracking Trump administration announcements and news reports about workers' leave and office closures. His administration's actions could prompt lawsuits, and the outcome may be unknown for months or years.

For now, we rate this promise as In the Works.

RELATED: PolitiFact kicks off the MAGA-Meter to track Donald Trump's promises

PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this promise update.

Our Sources

White House, Fact sheet about ending DEI, Jan. 22, 2025

Presidential action, "Ending illegal discrimination and restoring merit-based opportunity," Jan. 22, 2025

President Donald Trump, Order about DEI, Jan. 20, 2025

The New York Times, U.S. Orders Federal D.E.I. Efforts to Shut Down by Wednesday Night, Jan. 22, 2025

President Donald Trump, Executive Order on Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping, Sept. 22, 2020

NAACP Legal Defense Fund, National Urban League v. Trump, 2020-2021

NBC, Florida public colleges barred from using state and federal funds for DEI programs, Jan. 17, 2024

NBC, Map: See which states have introduced or passed anti-DEI bills, March 2, 2024

US Fed News, Agency launches website aimed at hiring people with disabilities, (Accessed in Nexis) April 2, 2009 

Federal Aviation Administration, FAA Provides Aviation Careers to People with Disabilities, April 11, 2019

Federal Aviation Administration, National Outreach Program for Diversity and Inclusion People with Disabilities Program, Aug. 16, 2023

Federal Register, Executive Order 13548 of July 26, 2010 Increasing Federal Employment of Individuals With Disabilities, July 30, 2010

President Joe Biden, Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government, Jan. 20, 2021

Email interview, Jin Hee Lee, director of strategic initiative at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Jan. 22, 2025

Email interview, Leonard Bright, professor at Texas A&M University's Bush School of Government and Public Service, Jan. 21, 2025

 

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