Trump’s order, issued less than two days after his Monday inauguration, directs all agencies to put all DEI office staffers on paid leave by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, and all DEI-related government web pages must be taken down by the same deadline. Carr reflected on how “wild” the past two days have been under Trump’s leadership, during which the president “turned the ship around” through multiple executive actions.

TRUMP’S ALL-OUT WAR ON DEI KICKS INTO HIGH GEAR

“And here in D.C., it’s sort of been a tale of two reactions. For the swamp, it’s been a rough 48 hours. I think they describe it more as shock and awe,” Carr said on Fox News’s Fox & Friends. “But for the patriotic Americans, they feel like this sense of decline, the sense of malaise that’s taken over the country over the last four years is ending. And the way President Trump is doing it is going right to the source of that decline, and he’s getting rid of it, root and branch, and DEI’s a part of it.”

Prior to Trump’s inauguration, Carr previewed how eliminating DEI promotion within the FCC would be a priority since “there’s no place” for this. Following Trump’s action against DEI, Carr reflected how people would be “shocked” if they found out how embedded U.S. agencies are with DEI and that the nation is spending “millions and millions of dollars” promoting it.

Carr was then asked what he would tell federal workers who wish to resist Trump’s agenda, to which he gave a one-word response: afuera, a Spanish term meaning “outside.” The statement was a reference to Argentinian President Javier Milei and a viral video showcasing his vision to eliminate multiple departments in the country’s government.

“This is President Trump’s administration. The administration’s going to follow his lead, and for my part at the FCC, we want to make sure we get to the core mission,” Carr said. “So that’s reining in Big Tech. It’s going to be taking a look at media and making sure they live up to their public interest obligation. It’s getting our economy going through new actions on space so we can get going there and promoting national security.”

The latest move against DEI came as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced earlier this month that the platform is ditching its key DEI policies. Meta is also ridding itself of its “fact-checkers” in a bid to support freedom of speech on its platforms, including Facebook and Instagram. 

In November, Carr previewed combating “tech censorship” as one of the major focuses going forward. He also called for social media platforms to follow the path that Elon Musk’s X has taken in upholding free speech for its users.