Donald Trump officially took steps on Tuesday to weaponize the Justice Department against private companies that have instituted diversity, equity and inclusion policies meant to make their workplaces more welcoming to marginalized groups.
My colleague Clarissa-Jan Lim wrote a great explainer on the Trump administration's efforts to root out DEI programs from the federal government, including a memo demanding a plan to fire federal employees who specialize in that field by the end of the month and an executive order seeking to shutter all federal DEI initiatives. And another DEI-focused executive action, issued Tuesday, makes threats against private companies, as well.
Over the last couple of years, I’ve written extensively on conservative lawmakers’ use of the government to pressure companies that don’t comply with their right-wing worldview, and potentially punish these companies if they don’t bend the knee.
The self-proclaimed party of “free enterprise” is all too eager to dictate how businesses ought to be run.
That Tuesday order, titled “Ending illegal discrimination and restoring merit-based opportunity,” essentially formalizes that crusade at the country's executive level. It calls on the attorney general to compile a report “containing recommendations for enforcing Federal civil-rights laws and taking other appropriate measures to encourage the private sector to end illegal discrimination and preferences, including DEI.”
This line, in particular, underscores my warnings about Trump’s pick to lead the DOJ’s civil rights division: right-wing lawyer Harmeet Dhillon. Late last year, I explained how Dhillon could upend the division’s mission and wage an assault on civil rights.
The executive action directs all government agencies to compile a list of organizations with DEI programs, including major corporations, foundations and colleges that fit certain criteria:
As a part of this plan, each agency shall identify up to nine potential civil compliance investigations of publicly traded corporations, large non-profit corporations or associations, foundations with assets of 500 million dollars or more, State and local bar and medical associations, and institutions of higher education with endowments over 1 billion dollars
Trump has previously called for people "hurt" by DEI policies in higher education to receive what he called "restitution," a plan that some critics said amounts to reparations for white students.
Diversity programs, of course, do not constitute discrimination. And contrary to the way they’re often portrayed by Trump and his allies, such initiatives are not corporate favors to marginalized groups. Studies of corporate America, for example, have repeatedly shown that workplaces that acknowledge and encourage diversity outperform companies that don’t. In other words, diversity is their strength. But Trump’s executive order demanding his officials compile a report suggesting otherwise aligns with right-wing portrayals of diversity efforts as an affront to straight white men (who can also benefit from DEI programs).
I should note that many companies have already cowed to Trump's demands and effectively abandoned their DEI programs. We can expect more companies to follow suit now that Trump's aggressive, and fundamentally bigoted, effort to rid the country of what he calls "anti-white feeling" is starting to take shape.