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There is a great clanging and clamoring around the offices in Washington, DC, and Mar-a-Lago in Florida. Political operatives, policy wonks and opposition figures are all planning for the arrival of the second Donald Trump administration.
I’ve spoken with many of the people in the president-elect’s orbit who are planning how to staff Cabinet departments and set a new tone on the administration’s first day. Much of our discussion has focused on the approach to DEI, or “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
While the officials in Trump world are all committed to abolishing DEI in theory, they have yet to settle on a practical approach for doing so.
Here’s how they can shut down DEI — and win the fight for public opinion.
DEI bureaucracies became embedded in the federal government as a result of actions by two presidents: Barack Obama, whose Executive Order 13583 laid the groundwork for many national “diversity” initiatives; and Joe Biden, whose Executive Orders 13985 and 14035 entrenched DEI principles into every federal department and routed billions of dollars toward advancing this ideology throughout American society.
Given this history, Cabinet officials must work with Trump to rescind those executive orders.
In their place, he should sign an order advancing the principle of colorblind equality, stating that the government shall treat all individuals equally according to their merit, rather than unequally according to their ancestry.
The second task is harder. It’s one thing to issue an executive order, and another to make it a reality across the sprawling federal bureaucracy.
On this score, Trump’s Cabinet should swiftly shut down all DEI programs and terminate the employment of all policy officials responsible for those programs — effective immediately.
There is an enormous advantage to acting quickly and aggressively on the first day, when the public is most willing to grant the new administration discretion.
Every president has the right to shape his own administration according to his principles, and DEI principles are diametrically opposed to those of Trump, Vice President JD Vance and the Cabinet writ large.
I have experience implementing such a policy as a trustee at New College of Florida, which became the first institution in America to abolish the DEI department.
As expected, this led to frenzied headlines and a fierce public debate. But we were able to cut that debate short because we acted decisively and effectuated our policy immediately.
The policy was issued, the department was terminated and the director was pink-slipped — all in one fell swoop.
Cabinet officials in the second Trump administration should pursue a similar course of action. They have important work to pursue, and the federal DEI bureaucracy, if not dispatched immediately, will prevent that work from being done effectively.
Cabinet secretaries should task their aides with creating a list of all DEI programs, departments and policies, and, if the president issues an order along the lines I’ve outlined, terminate them within hours of the decision.
The third step is to win the fight in the press. Here again, our policy at the New College of Florida is instructive.
Progressive media outlets tried to turn our elimination of DEI into a negative news cycle, but we outwitted them by speed and substitution.
Working quickly ensured that stories about our policy were part of a single news cycle. Simultaneously, we paired our abolition of DEI with a replacement policy that advanced the principle of colorblind equality.
This created an immense narrative advantage, as it allowed the public to weigh one approach against another. And public polling data indicate that Americans support a colorblind society over a race-conscious one by a nearly 70-to-20 margin.
If Cabinet officials publicly emphasize the concept of colorblind equality, they will ground their case against DEI in popular opinion — and cast their opponents into the fringes.
Finally, Cabinet members should take advantage of the inevitable frenzy that will surround the new administration’s various policies and personalities.
Abolishing DEI, while important, will register as a secondary headline, and a clean break means these diversity programs need never be addressed again.
The principle underlying this course of action is simple: America doesn’t need a permanent DEI bureaucracy, but an effective administration that treats its citizens in a fair manner without regard to race.
This is broadly popular, morally just and, with this administration, achievable as public policy for the first time in a generation.
My lasting hope is that Trump can disband the DEI bureaucracy — forever.
Such a prospect may sound unlikely, but supplemented with legislation in Congress, this administration can persuade the American people never to go back to discrimination under the guise of “equity.”
So prepare for the opening salvo. The fight to abolish DEI has arrived.
Adapted from the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal.
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