Two days into his new term, President Donald Trump has moved to shut down diversity programs, revoked previous executive orders defending diversity and mandated new hiring practices, all as part of his drive to “protect civil rights” and end what his administration has called “discriminatory initiatives.”

Trump signed a slew of executive orders that attacked what he refers to as “illegal DEI,” or federal diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, namely reversing former President Joe Biden’s Executive Order 13985, which he signed the day he took office in 2021 and that charged federal agencies to instill equity and fairness into their everyday operations. Trump also reversed a civil rights-era executive order from 1965 that expanded equal employment opportunities by requiring federal contractors to take affirmative action when hiring new employees.

On Tuesday, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) directed agencies to place DEI staffers on paid leave and deactivate public DEI-focused web pages by the end of the day on Wednesday. Some site pages, like the OPM’s Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility page, were removed as early as Monday afternoon. Most of Biden’s previous executive orders that are now revoked can no longer be found on the White House website. 

Throughout his campaign, Trump promised voters he would put an end to what he described as harmful DEI practices, claiming they discriminated against White people, primarily White men.

After being sworn in on Monday, Trump signed two executive orders that will affect federal hiring practices as well as DEI offices. Within the next 120 days, Trump ordered the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and OPM, in partnership with the newly established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), to develop a new plan that prioritizes merit-based hiring rather than on the basis of an applicant’s “race, sex or religion.”

“Current Federal hiring practices are broken, insular, and outdated. They no longer focus on merit, practical skill, and dedication to our Constitution,” the order reads. “Federal hiring should not be based on impermissible factors, such as one’s commitment to illegal racial discrimination under the guise of ‘equity,’ or one’s commitment to the invented concept of ‘gender identity’ over sex.”

The second DEI-specific executive order mandated that OPM terminate all “discriminatory” federal programs, particularly offices and positions that specialize in DEI and accessibility.

The president also signed an executive order that formally established DOGE, which Trump has said will modernize federal technology as a means to increase government efficiency and productivity. Led by Elon Musk, who has repeatedly publicly disparaged DEI efforts, the agency is looking to slash more than $120 billion in annual spending on DEI, according to The Washington Post. Programs focused on benefiting Black farmers and businesses are likely to end, and a Biden-era executive order that reserved 15 percent of federal contracts for businesses owned by minorities, has been ordered shut down. The executive order also established a temporary U.S. DOGE Service that will replace the U.S. Digital Service, created under the Obama administration, and partner with agencies to “ensure data integrity and facilitate responsible data collection and synchronization.”

“The Trump administration’s decision to cut DEI funding marks a significant shift in the federal government’s approach to addressing social inequities,” Monica L. Wang, a community health researcher at Boston University, told The 19th. “By reducing or eliminating funding for diversity and inclusion programs, the government signaled a de-prioritization of efforts aimed at reducing systemic barriers. … It represents a broader ideological shift in how we view fairness in public policy and in society at large.”

Procedurally, Trump made way for some of the expected moves by issuing an executive order on terminating federal staffers. The document reinstates an executive order he signed in late 2020 known as “Schedule F,” which reclassified thousands of civil servants and stripped them of their job protections. The executive order is worded as a call for accountability for federal employees in policy-influencing positions in instances when they are “resisting and undermining the policies and directives of executive leadership.”

Former Trump officers and others in his orbit have already identified as many as 50,000 federal employees who could be fired, which presumably includes those who hold DEI positions, according to published reports. Russell Vought, who helped craft the executive order and has been tapped again to lead the OMB, worked for years to dismantle DEI efforts.

Trump’s acting head of the Homeland Security Department on Tuesday fired Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Linda Lee Fagan, the first woman uniformed leader of an armed forces branch. Although DHS didn’t officially state why Fagan was terminated, a Fox News report cited, in part, her “excessive” focus on DEI policies.

Mariel Padilla contributed reporting.