President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday rescinding President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Executive Order 11246, which mandated government contractors take affirmative action.
The order more broadly ceases diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) “discrimination in the federal workforce, and in federal contracting and spending,” the White House noted.
The federal government’s hiring practices will now be merit-based, with employees being rewarded for “individual initiative, skills, performance, and hard work.”
One major facet of Trump’s move is terminating Johnson’s 1965 order.
Under Trump’s order, the Office of Management and Budget will “streamline the federal contracting process to enhance speed and efficiency, reduce costs, and require Federal contractors and subcontractors to comply with our civil rights laws,” a White House fact sheet notes.
Furthermore, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs will not be allowed to pressure “contractors to balance their workforce based on race, sex, gender identity, sexual preference, or religion” under the order.
The White House states that “radical DEI” has reversed “progress made in the decades since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 toward a colorblind and competence-based workplace” and that DEI encourages authoritarianism.
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Trump committed once again at his rally at Capital One Arena on Sunday to terminate former President Joe Biden’s DEI mandates and return to a merit-based system.
“We’re going to stop the destructive and divisive Diversity Equity and Inclusion mandates all across government and private sector and return our country to the merit system,” Trump declared.
Trump first pledged to eliminate DEI across the government in 2023 after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to strike down affirmative action in college admissions.
While he has taken sweeping action to eliminate DEI practices from the federal government, Breitbart News has noted a self-purge of such practices in the private sector since Trump’s election.
