White House Orders All DEI Offices Closed, Workers Placed on Leave

The Trump administration’s Office of Personnel Management announced that all diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility offices in the federal government will be shuttered.

Charles Ezell, the acting director of the Office of Personnel Management, sent a letter on Tuesday to all heads and acting heads of federal agencies, informing them that the diversity offices must close by 5:00 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday.

The agency heads must “send an agency-wide notice to employees informing them of the closure and asking employees if they know of any efforts to disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language,” according to the memo.

BREAKING: Every government agency was just ordered to begin closing ALL their DEI offices – tomorrow, 5pm is deadline pic.twitter.com/NCCbXw77Io

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) January 22, 2025

They must also “send a notification” to all DEI employees “that they are being placed on paid administrative leave effective immediately” as steps are taken to close the offices.

Beyond dismissing staff, department heads were told to “take down all outward facing media” such as websites and social media profiles related to the diversity offices.

All “DEIA-related trainings” will be canceled, while relationships with all “DEIA-related contractors” will be shuttered.

President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Monday hours after his inauguration noting that the Biden administration “forced illegal and immoral discrimination programs” into “virtually all aspects of the Federal Government.”

That is true “in areas ranging from airline safety to the military.”

The action mandated “the termination of all discriminatory programs, including illegal DEI.”

He instructed the director of the Office of Personnel Management to “review and revise, as appropriate, all existing Federal employment practices, union contracts, and training policies or programs to comply with this order.”

By noon on Thursday, Jan. 23, all agency heads must provide “a complete list” of diversity employees in those offices as of Nov. 5.

They must also produce a list of DEI contractors and formal agency plans to comply with the executive order.

By the end of the day on Friday, Jan. 31, agency heads must have “a written plan for executing a reduction-in-force action regarding the employees who work in a DEIA office.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that the letter, which first circulated via social media on Tuesday evening, was indeed valid.

“President Trump campaigned on ending the scourge of DEI from our federal government and returning America to a merit based society where people are hired based on their skills, not for the color of their skin,” Leavitt said in a statement.

“This is another win for Americans of all races, religions, and creeds. Promises made, promises kept.”

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