Postscript: The Trump Administration’s War on Diversity

January 1, 2026

In the first year of President Trump’s administration, the diversity principle has come under constant attack, as efforts to increase diversity in education, business, government, and science have been dramatically reversed. Universities, businesses, government entities, major law firms, museums, philanthropic foundations, libraries, and others have retreated from their commitment to diversity. While the scientific and anecdotal evidence underlying the principle that heterogeneity leads to better decision making, deeper learning, higher profits, and more significant discoveries remains unchanged, our society is rapidly abandoning our diversity efforts as a result of political pressure. Yale University Press has thus agreed that I could include this post-submission/pre-publication postscript as a new final chapter of The Diversity Principle to be published on the book’s website.

Beginning on President Trump’s first day of his second term, the Trump administration has taken the unwarranted legal position that any practice or policy that benefits women, Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, Indigenous Americans, LGBT persons, immigrants, Muslims, or any combination of them, is simply illegal. This is not only a rejection of the diversity principle – that heterogeneity contributes to better decision making – it is a full-throated endorsement of white, male, Christian nationalist supremacy. To put these ideas into practice, the federal government, in violation of multiple laws including the U.S. Constitution, numerous civil rights statutes, administrative law statutes and regulations, and Supreme Court decisions, has taken the following actions:

• Ordered private companies to end their diversity efforts, including insisting that they stop seeking diversity in their workforce, stop training their employees about discrimination, and stop publicly endorsing the value of diversity;[1]

• Ordered private and public universities to end all diversity initiatives in their workforce and among their students except programs for military veterans;[2]

• Pressured private and public universities to stop teaching courses that included material on the benefits of diversity and to closely monitor academic departments that study the contributions of persons other than white men;[3]

• Ordered K-12 schools to suspend all instruction, programs, or activities related to DEI, particularly those addressing gender and racial equity, with the threat of losing their federal funding for noncompliance;[4]

• Instructed employers and educational institutions to treat steps taken to diversify a workplace as a form of discrimination against white men;[5]

• Canceled the sixty-year-old Executive Order (promulgated by President Kennedy and continued by Presidents Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Bush (HW), Clinton, Bush (W), Obama, Trump I, and Biden) requiring federal contractors to take steps to prevent workplace discrimination;[6]

• Ordered non-U.S. private companies that import products to the United States to end all of their diversity efforts, including those required by their home country’s laws;[7]

• Ordered the U.S. military academies’ libraries to review for removal books that refer to diversity as well as those containing the terms “affirmative action, anti-racism, critical race theory, discrimination, diversity, gender dysphoria, gender identity and transition, transgender, transsexual and white privilege”;[8]

• Carried out the removal of books from the U.S. military academies’ libraries, so that books that referred to racism/discrimination in ways that supported claims of white male supremacy were retained, while removing those that rebutted the claims. Thus, Mein Kampf remained, but books about the Holocaust were removed;[9]

• Ordered the U.S. military academies’ libraries to remove books that were written by persons who are members of racial minorities, LGBT persons, and other disfavored groups;[10]

• Terminated thousands of scientific/medical research grants, without any of the processes required by law, if it appeared that the topic of the research concerned the lives of women, and/or minority group members, and/or LGBT persons;[11]

• Terminated thousands of scientific/medical research grants, without any of the processes required by law, based on the identity of the researchers and regardless of the topic of the research; if it appeared that the scientists conducting the research were women, and/or minority group members, and/or LGBT persons, the grants were canceled;[12]

• Closed the diversity offices of all federal government entities;[13]

• Ordered that all federal government entities stop training their employees about discrimination;[14]

• Ordered that all federal government entities stop requiring their suppliers and contractors to take efforts to prevent discrimination;[15]

• Removed or concealed numerous positive depictions of Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, Indigenous Americans, LGBT persons, immigrants, Muslims, or any combination of them, from government websites, libraries, and museums in furtherance of orders to “remove DEI content”;[16]

• Fired from federal employment large numbers of women, Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, Indigenous Americans, LGBT persons, immigrants, Muslims, or any combination of them, with explanations that were transparently false, replacing them with white men;[17]

• Pressured private charitable foundations to end their diversity efforts and stop funding projects intended to benefit women, and/or minority group members, and/or LGBT persons;[18]

• Pressured private charitable foundations to end their diversity efforts and stop funding projects if the project was led by women, and/or minority group members, and/or LGBT persons;[19]

• Fired from federal employment disproportionate numbers of women, Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, Indigenous Americans, LGBT persons, immigrants, Muslims, or any combination of them, as compared with the number of white men fired;[20]

• Blocked funds allocated by Congress to provide student aid to low-income students, with a disproportionate impact on students of color;[21]

• And blocked funds allocated by Congress to support universities with large numbers of Hispanic students because they served comparatively few white students.[22]

_________________

An August, 2025 article in Forbes reported on a July 2025 survey of nearly 1,000 companies with DEI programs, conducted by resume.org.[23] “The numbers show immediate shifts in hiring and retention patterns. One in five companies has eliminated DEI initiatives entirely, with 74% citing the changed political climate as their primary reason. Among companies that cut programs, 57% report hiring fewer people from underrepresented groups. The decline is particularly pronounced for women of color (37% decrease), LGBTQIA+ candidates (33% decrease), and men of color (33% decrease). By comparison, only 12% reported decreased hiring of white men.”[24] Overall, according to the Bureau of Economic Affairs, in the first six months of the Trump administration an estimated 319,000 Black women lost their jobs, while jobs held by white men increased by approximately 365,000.[25]

In President Trump's first 200 days in office he sent 98 appointments to the senate for ratification. Although Black Americans make up 14% of our workforce, only two of the appointees were Black, both of whom were men. The president appointed zero Black women. But the failure to appoint Black Americans, and especially Black women, pales in comparison to those he fired. 

In the pages that follow I will describe a few of the Trump administration's direct efforts to remove from national leadership all but straight white men, undermining the diversity principle – a principle that has increased our country’s wealth, health, knowledge, and security. I will describe how these policies have singled out some of the most talented people in America, people who have made it their lives’ work to contribute to our national well-being, and upended their lives by rejecting their contributions and denying their humanity.

Dr. Carla Hayden

Perhaps the best example among many is the treatment of Dr. Carla Hayden, until recently the Librarian of Congress. Hayden, a Black woman from a modest middle-class background, fell in love with reading as a child. She attended MacMurray College in Jacksonville Florida and Roosevelt University in Chicago, earning degrees in political science and African history. She then began work as a library story-teller, reading to children with autism, while studying for a masters degree in library science. Over a fourteen year period she worked as a librarian while studying library science, ultimately earning a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1987. Armed with a doctorate, she earned an academic appointment as a professor of library science at the University of Pittsburgh and then returned home to Chicago to lead the Chicago Public Library. In 1993 she left Chicago to become the head of Baltimore’s public library system. In 2003/04 she served as the president of the American Library Association.[26] 

An Act of Congress provides for the president to appoint the Librarian of Congress, with ratification by the Senate, to a ten-year term. In early 2016 Hayden was nominated by President Obama to serve as the 14th Librarian of Congress. She was confirmed by the Senate on July 13 of that year, and sworn in on September 14. She is the only woman and only Black person to ever serve in the position.[27]

The Library of Congress is a research library. It fields research questions from members of Congress, and provides research assistance at its buildings on Capital Hill to researchers age sixteen and over. It catalogs new books and records copyrights for books and other forms of artistic intellectual property. It is not a lending library. It does not allow visitors to wander through its shelves. It does not supply library services to children.[28]

On May 8, 2025, Dr. Hayden received an email from the White House Presidential Personnel Office. It read in its entirety, “Carla, on behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as the Librarian of Congress is terminated effective immediately. Thank you for your service." [29]

To be clear, the email began “Carla,” not “Dr. Hayden.”

Responding to a request for the reasons for the firing, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt explained, “We felt she did not fit the needs of the American people. There were quite concerning things that she had done at the Library of Congress in the pursuit of DEI and putting inappropriate books in the library for children.”[30] The answer suggests that children have access to the library's collection, but a few minutes’ research would have revealed that they don’t. There was no further White House explanation of the alleged “concerning things” regarding DEI. 

Dr. Hayden has been temporarily replaced by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. Like every other Librarian of Congress other than Dr. Hayden, Blanche is a white man, but unlike most of them he has no background or experience with library management. Prior to his appointment to the Department of Justice, he was one of President Trump’s lawyers in the New York criminal prosecution that led to President Trump’s conviction for financial fraud.[31]

This was not the first controversy in our history over the library. In 1814, with the first Library of Congress in ruins after the British destroyed it and most of our Capital city, former President Thomas Jefferson offered his personal library of 6,700 books to help rebuild the collection. A fierce debate erupted in the Congress, where Federalists opposed the offer, concerned that Jefferson’s library included works in French and works by Locke, Rousseau, and Voltaire “whose atheism and deism offended their sensibilities.”[32] Congressman Daniel Webster voted to remove the French texts while others suggested burning Jefferson’s entire collection. It was only by a narrow margin that the House accepted Jefferson’s offer.[33] One may fairly wonder what today’s Congress would do.

Dr. Telita Crosland

Another example is the forced retirement of Dr. Telita Crosland, a family medicine physician and the Director of the Defense Health Agency (DHA) from January, 2023 until February, 2025.[34] Dr. Crosland was a graduate of West Point.[35] She earned a Doctor of Medicine and a Masters in Public Health from the Uniformed Services University School of Medicine.[36] She worked her way up the leadership ranks of our military medical services over a 32-year career to Deputy Surgeon General of the United States Army before her appointment to the DHA, where she was the first Black woman to hold the position.[37] Five weeks after Pete Hegseth was confirmed as Secretary of Defense, she was abruptly informed that she was being required to immediately retire, without an explanation.[38]

Dr. Lisa Cook

A third prominent example is Dr. Lisa Cook, the first Black woman to serve as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Bank (“the Fed”), an independent federal agency. Dr. Cook was educated at Spelman College, the University of Oxford, and the University of California, Berkeley, where she earned a Ph.D. in economics. She was a professor of economics at Michigan State University, with visiting appointments at Harvard University and Stanford University, in between appointments to several federal agencies, culminating in her appointment to the Fed by President Biden in 2022, and her reappointment in 2024 to a 14-year term.[39]

In August of 2025 President Trump announced that he was firing Cook from her position as a Fed Governor. This is the first time that any president has attempted to fire a Fed Governor. The reason given was that she allegedly engaged in mortgage fraud in 2021 by describing both a home in Michigan and a condo in Atlanta as her “primary residence.”[40] The termination was blocked by a federal court, and is currently under consideration by the Supreme Court. Following the attempted termination, it was revealed that Dr. Cook described the Atlanta condo as a “vacation home” on the loan application, that she has not sought a homestead exemption for it, as would normally be done for a primary residence, and that four of President Trump’s cabinet members (Bessent, Chavez-DeRemer, Duffy, and Zeldin) also have mortgages on two homes listed as their  “primary residence,” without controversy. An analysis by Reuters found that Dr. Cook was paying an above-market interest rate on both properties. (As explained in chapter 16, Black women typically pay higher interest rates on loans than white men with similar credit ratings.)[41]

Dr. Peggy G. Carr

A fourth example is the termination of Dr. Peggy G. Carr, the former Commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Dr. Carr was educated at North Carolina Central University and Howard University, where she earned a Ph.D in statistics and developmental psychology. After 15 years of teaching at Howard, Garr was appointed Chief Statistician of the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights, where she served for 20 years. In 2021 President Biden appointed her to a six-year term as the Commissioner of the NCES. She was the first woman and first Black person to serve in this position.[42]

On February 24, 2025, a security guard entered Dr. Carr’s office and informed her that she had 15 minutes to pack her belongings and leave the building. She has not been given an explanation for her termination.[43]

Gwynne Wilcox

In its eighty-year history, no member of the National Labor Relations Board had ever been fired until January 27, 2025, when President Trump fired Board Chair Gwynne Wilcox, providing no explanation.[44] Her term would have expired in 2028. Wilcox was the first Black woman ever appointed to the Board, serving as a member from 2021 to 2024, and then as chair beginning in 2024.[45] She was fired by a midnight email from the White House, offering no explanation.[46] The legality of her termination is under review in the courts.[47]

Commandant Admiral Linda L. Fagen

Linda Fagen entered the Coast Guard Academy in 1985, and over the next 40 years served on all 7 continents as she rose to be the first woman Commandant of the Guard. She was the first woman to serve as the head of a U.S. military branch.[48] She was appointed to a 4-year term in 2022, but was fired on Inauguration Day, 2025, with a 5-part explanation that seemed partly untrue, partly contrived, and partly because of her “excessive focus on diversity, equity and inclusion.”[49] Although the facts of her subsequent eviction from her home are disputed, it appears that she was initially given 60 days to vacate her quarters, but then on orders of President Trump given just three hours to move out.[50]

Admiral Fagen was replaced by Acting Commandant Admiral Kevin Lunday, a white man. Within days, he suspended the Coast Guard’s hazing and harassment policy.[51]

Master Sergeant Logan Ireland

Soon after taking office, President Trump ordered that all transgender members of our military be fired.[52] For Master Sergeant Logan Ireland that meant an end to over fifteen years of honorable service to our country.[53] He and other transgender soldiers and sailors were initially told that they would be eligible for early/medical retirement based on their diagnosis of gender dysphoria.[54] But in August the administration changed their position, denying any early or medical retirements, leaving the service members ineligible for even partial pension and retirement benefits.[55] 

Dr. Gregory Washington

Dr. Gregory Washington is the first Black president of George Mason University.[56] He is a first generation college graduate, with a PhD in engineering from North Carolina State University.[57] He served as Dean of Engineering at the University of California, Irvine before being recruited to George Mason in 2020.[58] Washington promoted several diversity initiatives at George Mason, initiatives that were encouraged during the Biden administration and have never been condemned by any court. But the Trump administration has not only demanded that the policies be eliminated, they have insisted that they will issue sanctions against the university unless President Washington personally apologizes for his past support for diversity.[59] 

Conclusion

When I began writing this book, this was not the conclusion I expected to write. I anticipated concluding with a summary of how the diversity principle, once a product of European political philosophy, had now become thoroughly Americanized as a pragmatic approach to improving decision making and encouraging inclusion. I could see there was backlash on the horizon, but I naively believed that the strength of this powerful transformative idea would defeat any attempt to repress it. 

Instead I find myself writing a conclusion that wavers between an obituary and a call to arms.

By now there have been hundreds of judicial decisions enjoining Trump administration anti-diversity decisions as illegal. One that particularly stands out is a decision by Judge William Young of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Judge Young is not a liberal. He was appointed to the bench by conservative President Ronald Reagan in 1985. He is presiding over a challenge to two Executive Orders rescinding National Institutes of Health funding related to racial minorities and LGBTQ+ people. In ordering the funding restored, he explained, “I am hesitant to draw this conclusion — but I have an unflinching obligation to draw it — that this represents racial discrimination and discrimination against America’s LGBTQ community,” the judge said. “That’s what this is. I would be blind not to call it out. My duty is to call it out.” He continued, “I’ve never seen a record where racial discrimination was so palpable. I’ve sat on this bench now for 40 years. I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this.” [60]

It’s too soon to know whether the Supreme Court will allow the Trump administration’s anti-diversity efforts to become law or to reign them in. The Court may well decide someday, even someday soon, that any and all efforts to include women, people of color, and other disadvantaged groups are a form of discrimination against white men, and that the diversity principle is unfounded, or that it does not justify efforts to be inclusive. That would be an abandonment of science, of evidence-based policy-making, of tools that make our lives healthier and wealthier, and a tragedy for our country. But unless and until that happens we should not lose sight of the fact that virtually everything being done to eliminate diversity efforts is a smokescreen for still-illegal discrimination against those who are disadvantaged by reasons of sex, race, ethnicity, religion, age, disability, gender, language, or other similar characteristics, and that their exclusion shames our country.

David B. Oppenheimer

Berkeley, California

January 1, 2026

_________

Notes

[1] Emily Flitter, Trump Ramps Up Fight to Dismantle DEI from Corporate America, Bloomberg (Jan. 22, 2025), https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-01-22/trump-moves-to-put-all-federal-dei-staffers-on-paid-leave; Exec. Order  No. 14173, 90 C.F.R. 8633, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity, The White House, §4 (Jan. 21, 2025), available at https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-illegal-discrimination-and-restoring-merit-based-opportunity/; see also Lara A. Flath, David E. Schwartz, & Emily D. Safko, DEI Under Siege: A Guide to the Trump Executive Orders, Winter 2025 Skadden: The Informed Board 1–4, https://www.skadden.com/insights/publications/2025/02/the-informed-board/dei-under-siege;  Memorandum for all Department Employees on Ending Illegal DEI and DEI Discrimination and Preferences, Off. of the Attn’y Gen. (Feb. 5, 2025) available at https://www.justice.gov/ag/media/1388501/dl?inline.

[2]  Exec. Order  No. 14173 supra note 1, §5; Memorandum for all Department Employees supra note 1; see also Collin Binkley, Trump Administration Gives Schools a Deadline to End DEI Programs or Risk Losing Federal Money, Associated Press (Feb. 18, 2025), https://www.ap.org/news-highlights/spotlights/2025/trump-administration-gives-schools-a-deadline-to-end-dei-programs-or-risk-losing-federal-money/.

[3] Trump Administration, Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education (proposed Oct. 1, 2025), available at https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Compact-for-Academic-Excellence-in-Higher-Education-10.1.pdf; see also Katie Loewer, New Texas A&M Policy Requires Professors to Get Approval for Some Race and Gender Topics, PBD NewsHour (Nov. 13, 2025), https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/new-texas-am-policy-requires-professors-to-get-approval-for-some-race-and-gender-topics; Delia Sara Rangel, SU Removed DEIA Language from Its IDEA Course Description Over Summer, Daily Orange (Oct. 2, 2025), https://dailyorange.com/2025/10/su-removed-deia-language-idea-course-description/; Ryan Quinn, Citing Trump Order, UNC System Ends DEI Course Requirements, Inside Higher Education (Feb. 10, 2025), https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/02/10/citing-trump-order-unc-system-ends-dei-course-requirements. 

[4]  Exec. Order No. 14190, 90 C.F.R. 8853, Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling, The White House (Jan. 29, 2025), https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-indoctrination-in-k-12-schooling/; see also Jonaki Mehta, Education Dept. Warns Schools: Eliminate DEI Programs or Lose Funding, NPR (Apr. 3, 2025), https://www.npr.org/2025/04/03/nx-s1-5350978/trump-administration-warns-schools-about-dei-programs; Mark Lieberman, McMahon Declines to Say If Black History Classes Are Allowed Under Trump Order, Education Week (Feb. 13, 2025), https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/mcmahon-declines-to-say-if-black-history-classes-are-allowed-under-trump-order/2025/02.

[5]  Exec. Order No. 14173, supra note 1; Memorandum for all Department Employees supra note 1 (“To fulfill the Nation's promise of equality for all Americans, the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division will investigate, eliminate, and penalize illegal DEI and DEIA preferences, mandates, policies, programs, and activities in the private sector and in educational institutions that receive federal funds.”) See also Susan D. Friedfel, Monica H. Khetarpal, Michelle E. Phillips, Carol R. Ashley, & Laura A. Victorelli, President Trump’s DEI Roll Backs: What Are They and How Should Employers Respond?, Nelson Mullins (Feb. 12, 2025), https://www.nelsonmullins.com/insights/blogs/the-hr-minute/other/president-trump-s-dei-roll-backs-what-are-they-and-how-should-employers-respond.

[6] Exec. Order No. 14173, supra note 1, rescinding Exec. Order No. 11246; see also Flath et. al., DEI Under Siege, supra note 1; Anne-Carmene Almonord, Cameron Custard, Sean W. Glynn, Shira Helstrom, Cissy Jackson, Nancy J. Puleo, Alexandra M. Romero, Lauren C. Schaefer, & Brian D. Schneider, What Employers and Nonprofits Should Know About Trump’s Executive Order Banning Diversity Preferences, Arent Fox Schiff (Jan. 23 2025), https://www.afslaw.com/perspectives/alerts/what-employers-and-nonprofits-should-know-about-trumps-executive-order-banning.

[7]  Liz Alderman, U.S. Presses French Companies to Comply with Trump’s Anti-Diversity Policies, N.Y. Times (Mar. 9, 2025), https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/29/business/france-trump-diversity-inclusion.html 

[8]  Lolita C. Baldor, U.S. Air Force Academy, Army Libraries Ordered to Review Books for Dei Material, Denver Post (Apr. 16, 2025), https://www.denverpost.com/2025/04/16/air-force-army-libraries-dei-review/; Lolita C. Baldor, Pentagon directs military to pull library books that address diversity, anti-racism, gender issues, AP News (May 9, 2025); Johanna Alonso, Justice Department Declares DEI Unlawful, Inside Higher Ed (July 30, 2025); Linda Robinson, Trump’s DEI Purge in the Military Puts U.S. National Security at Risk, Council on Foreign Relations (Apr. 11, 2025), https://www.cfr.org/blog/trumps-dei-purge-military-puts-us-national-security-risk.

[9] John Ismay, Who’s In and Who’s Out at the Naval Academy’s Library? An order by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office resulted in a purge of books critical of racism but preserved volumes defending white power. N.Y. Times (Apr. 11, 2025); Lily Marino, Books Deemed Unfit to Serve: Almost 400 Books Purged from Naval Academy Library, Human Rights Research Center (July 2, 2025), https://www.humanrightsresearch.org/post/books-deemed-unfit-to-serve-almost-400-books-purged-from-naval-academy-library; E.K. v. Department of Defense Education Activity, 793 F. Supp. 3d 744 (E.D. Va., Jul. 11, 2025); see also Department of Education v. California, 604 U.S. 650 (2025). For a full list of banned books see List of Removed Books from Nimitz Library (released Apr. 4, 2025), available at https://media.defense.gov/2025/Apr/04/2003683009/-1/-1/0/250404-LISTOFREMOVEDBOOKSFROMNIMITZLIBRARY.PDF.

[10]  Thomas Novelly and Rebecca Kheel, Hundreds of Students at Military Base Schools Walk out to Protest Trump Administration’s Anti-Diversity Policies, Military.com (Apr. 11, 2025), https://www.military.com/daily-news/2025/04/10/were-going-fight-what-we-believe-military-kids-protest-diversity-crackdown-base-schools-worldwide.html; Greg Jaffe and Karsten Moran, The Pentagon’s Culture Wars Strike West Point, N.Y. Times (May 8, 2025), https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/us/politics/west-point-hegseth-culture-wars.html.

[11]  Supreme Court Stays District Court Order Vacating NIH Grant Terminations, but Leaves Guidance Vacatur Intact, Crowell & Moring LLP (Aug. 26, 2025), https://www.crowell.com/en/insights/client-alerts/supreme-court-stays-district-court-order-vacating-nih-grant-terminations-but-leaves-guidance-vacatur-intact; Court Strikes down NIH’s Unlawful Termination of Research Grants on Topics Including DEI and Gender Identity, ACLU (July 21, 2025), https://www.aclu.org/news/lgbtq-rights/court-strikes-down-nihs-unlawful-termination-of-research-grants-on-topics-including-dei-and-gender-identity; Benjamin Mueller, Trump Administration Slashes Research into L.G.B.T.Q. Health, N.Y. Times, May 4, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/04/health/trump-administration-slashes-research-into-lgbtq-health.html; E. Tammy Kim, ‘I Am Seeing My Community of Researchers Decimated,’ The New Yorker (Apr. 8, 2025), https://www.newyorker.com/news/deep-state-diaries/i-am-seeing-my-community-of-researchers-decimated ; Researchers Challenge NIH’s Politically Driven Grant Cancellations, American Public Health Association (Apr. 2, 2025), https://www.apha.org/news-and-media/news-releases/apha-news-releases/researchers-challenge-nih-s-politically-driven-grant-cancellations; APHA v. NIH Complaint, American Civil Liberties Union (Apr. 4, 2025), https://www.aclu.org/documents/apha-v-nih-complaint. 

[12] American Public Health Association v. National Institutes of Health, 791 F.Supp.3d 119 (D. Mass. 2025); Young, D.J., Findings of Fact, Rulings of Law, and Order for Partial Separate and Final Judgment (July 2, 2025),  http://litigationtracker.law.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Commonwealth-of-Massachusetts_2025.07.02_ORDER-FOR-PARTIAL-SEPARATE-AND-FINAL-JUDGEMENT.pdf.

[13] Julia E. Barnes, C.I.A. Rejects Diversity Efforts Once Deemed as Essential to Its Mission, N.Y. Times (May 13, 2025); Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing, The White House (Jan. 20, 2025), https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-and-wasteful-government-dei-programs-and-preferencing/; Eden Turner, Executive Orders in Action: Trump Moves to Shut down Federal DEI Offices, The 19th (Jan. 22, 2025), https://19thnews.org/2025/01/trump-executive-orders-dei-federal-offices-layoffs/; Ann-Elizabeth Ostrager, Julia Jordan, and Tracy Richelle High, President Trump Acts to Roll Back DEI Initiatives, Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance (Feb. 10, 2025), https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2025/02/10/president-trump-acts-to-roll-back-dei-initiatives/.

[14]  Ending Radical and Wasteful Government, supra note 13; Andrew Turnbull, Unpacking the Trump Administration’s DEI Orders and Actions, Morrison Foerster (Feb. 19, 2025), https://www.mofo.com/resources/insights/250219-unpacking-the-trump-administration-s-dei-orders;  Aaron Glantz, VA hospitals remove politics and marital status from guidelines protecting patients from discrimination, The Guardian (Jun. 18, 2025). 

[15]  Liz Alderman, U.S. Seeks to Calm Tempest in Europe Over Trump’s Anti-Diversity Policies, N.Y. Times (Apr. 2, 2025); Federica Di Sario, Trump Pressuring European Companies to Follow Anti-DEI Path, Parliament Mag. (Mar. 26, 2025); Claire Savage & Alexandra Olson, A Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks Parts of Trump’s Anti-DEI Executive Orders, AP News (Mar. 28, 2025). 

[16]  Rob Schmitz, Arlington National Cemetery Stops Highlighting Some Historical Figures on its Website, NPR (Mar. 15, 2025); see also Memorandum for Senior Pentagon Leadership,et al: Digital Content Refresh, Assistant to the Secretary of Defence (Feb. 26, 2025), available at https://media.defense.gov/2025/Feb/27/2003652943/-1/-1/1/DIGITAL-CONTENT-REFRESH.PDF; Pentagon Releases Digital Content Refresh Memorandum, U.S. Department of War (Feb. 27, 2025), https://www.war.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/4079501/pentagon-releases-digital-content-refresh-memorandum/.

[17]  Erica Green, In Trump’s Federal Work Force Cuts, Black Women Are among the Hardest Hit, N.Y. Times (Aug. 31, 2025), https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/31/us/politics/trump-federal-work-force-black-women.html?searchResultPosition=1; David Smith, Racist as Hell’: Trump’s Cabinet Is Almost All White, and He Keeps Firing Black Officials, Guardian (Aug. 30, 2025), https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/30/trump-administration-cabinet-race; Lauren Aratani, ‘Pattern of Lawfare’: Trump Is Targeting Opponents with Mortgage Fraud Claims, Guardian (Aug. 24, 2025), https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/24/trump-lawfare-mortgage-fraud-lisa-cook. 

[18] Maggie Astor, Top Sexual Assault Hotline Drops Resources After Trump’s D.E.I. Executive Orders, N.Y. Times (May 15 2025), www.nytimes.com/2025/05/15/well/rainn-dei-trump-executive-orders.html.

[19]  Timothy J. McClimon, Majority of Companies Say Federal Pressure Impacts Their Philanthropy, Forbes (Sep. 8, 2025), https://www.forbes.com/sites/timothyjmcclimon/2025/09/08/majority-of-companies-say-federal-pressure-impacts-their-philanthropy/; William Hicks, How Corporate Philanthropy is Adopting Trump Admin's Ban on DEI Words, S.F. Business Times (Aug. 1, 2025), https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2025/08/01/corporate-philanthropy-vocabulary.html (“Half of the companies surveyed state that they are rethinking their citizenship strategies by stepping back from politically sensitive issues such as giving focused exclusively on specific racial or demographic groups, and focusing more attention on noncontroversial issues such as education, disaster response, and local community needs.")

[20] Federal Employees File Class-Action Complaint against Trump Administration for Unlawfully Targeting Employees for DEI Activities, ACLU of DC (Aug. 28, 2025), https://www.acludc.org/press-releases/federal-employees-file-class-action-complaint-against-trump-administration-0/; Irie Sentner, Ben Johansen, & Sophia Cai, The Top Job Dismissal You Never Heard About, Politico (Aug. 7, 2025), https://www.politico.com/newsletters/west-wing-playbook-remaking-government/2025/08/07/the-big-job-no-one-has-ever-heard-of-00498754; Noreen Farrell, How Trump Gave America License to Roll Back Women’s Equality-and How We Take It Back, Ms. Mag., (July 16, 2025), https://msmagazine.com/2025/07/16/president-trump-women-equality/; Ben Casselman, Lisa Cook Broke Ground at the Fed, before Attack by Trump, N.Y. Times (Aug. 23, 2025), https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/23/business/lisa-cook-fed-trump.html; Green, supra note 17; Smith supra note 17.

[21]  U.S. Department of Education Ends Funding to Racially Discriminatory Discretionary Grant Programs at Minority-Serving Institutions, U.S. Department of Education (Sep. 10, 2025), https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-ends-funding-racially-discriminatory-discretionary-grant-programs-minority-serving-institutions; Amanda Litvinov, Trump’s Unlawful Funding Freeze Threatens Critical Student Supports, NEA Today (July 22, 2025), https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/trumps-unlawful-funding-freeze-threatens-critical-student-supports; Michael T. Nietzel, Feds Plan to End Discretionary Funding for Minority-Serving Institutions, Forbes (Sep. 11, 2025), https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltniet2zel/2025/09/11/feds-plan-to-end-discretionary-funding-for-minority-serving-institutions/.  

[22]  U.S. Department of Education Ends Funding supra note 21; Sara Weissman, An Uncertain Future for HSIs, Inside Higher Ed (Aug. 26, 2025), https://www.insidehighered.com/news/institutions/minority-serving-institutions/2025/08/26/uncertain-future-hsis?; Michael Burke, California Colleges on Edge over Suit Challenging Funds for Latino‑Serving Campuses, LA Times (July 8, 2025), https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-07-08/la-me-hispanic-service-colleges.

[23] 6 in 10 Companies That Eliminated DEI Since Trump’s Reelection Are Hiring Fewer Diverse Employees, Resume.org (July 23, 2025), https://www.resume.org/6-in-10-companies-that-eliminated-dei-since-trumps-reelection-are-hiring-fewer-diverse-employees/.

[24]  Kara Dennison, The Impact On Organizations Post Trump’s DEI Executive Orders, Forbes (Aug. 11, 2025), https://www.forbes.com/sites/karadennison/2025/08/11/the-impact-on-organizations-post-trumps-dei-executive-orders/.

[25] See Green, supra note 17; see also Table A-2: Employment Status of the Civilian Population by Race, Sex, and Age, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (last modified Dec. 16, 2025).

[26] Carla Hayden, Britannica (last updated Nov. 26, 2025), https://www.britannica.com/biography/Carla-Hayden.

[27]  Id.

[28]  Library of Congress, Britannica (last updated Nov. 26, 2025), https://www.britannica.com/topic/Library-of-Congress.

[29] Ramon Antonio Vargas, Fired US Librarian of Congress Details Callous Dismissal in New Interview, Guardian (June 7, 2025), https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/07/librarian-of-congress-carla-hayden.

[30] Forbes Breaking News, Karoline Leavitt Defends Trump Firing Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden (YouTube, May 9, 2025), https://youtu.be/BGNGx4q9Jfw?si=EbU9zecJx3YE4Jj5.

[31] Hillel Italie, Deputy attorney general Todd Blanche, who defended Trump in hush money trial, named acting Librarian of Congress, PBS News (May 12, 2025), https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/deputy-attorney-general-todd-blanche-who-defended-trump-in-hush-money-trial-named-acting-librarian-of-congress.

[32] Rebecca Brenner Graham, Trump Is Waging a Culture War on the Library of Congress. It’s Been Done Before, Politico (May 18, 2025), https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/05/18/carla-hayden-firing-library-of-congress-history-00352719. 

[33]  Id.

[34] U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Telita Crosland Bio, Defense Health Agency, https://dha.mil/About-DHA/Organizational-Structure/Bios/LTG-Crosland; Ellen Mitchell, Defense Health Agency head forced to abruptly retire: Report, The Hill (Feb. 28, 2025), https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5170543-defense-health-agency-head-retired-reports/.

[35] Patricia Kime, Defense Health Agency Director Ends 32-Year Career with Unceremonious, Abrupt Retirement, Military.com (Mar. 3, 2025), https://www.military.com/daily-news/2025/03/03/defense-health-agency-director-ends-32-year-career-unceremonious-abrupt-retirement.html.

[36] U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Telita Crosland.

[37] Kime, Defense Health Agency.

[38] Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart, Exclusive: Trump Administration Pushed out US Military Health Agency Head, Officials Say, Reuters (Feb. 28, 2025), https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-administration-pushed-out-us-military-health-agency-head-officials-say-2025-03-01/.

[39] Ben Casselman, Lisa Cook Broke Ground at the Fed, Before Attack by Trump, N.Y. Times (Aug. 25, 2025).

[40] Id.

[41]  Robert Faturechi, Justin Elliott & Alex Mierjeski, Trump Is Accusing Foes With Multiple Mortgages of Fraud. Records Show 3 of His Cabinet Members Have Them, ProPublica (Sep. 4, 2025), https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-cabinet-mortgage-fraud.

[42] Jill Barshay, Suddenly Sacked, Hechinger Report (July 14, 2025), https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-peggy-carr-interview-nces/.

[43] Id.

[44] Sheree L. Williams, Profiles in Courage: Gwynne Wilcox Was the First Black Woman on the NLRB—and the First to Be Fired by a President, Ms. Mag. (May 30, 2025), https://msmagazine.com/2025/05/30/profiles-in-courage-gwynne-wilcox-was-the-first-black-woman-nlrb-fired-president-trump-supreme-court/. 

[45] Robert Iafolla, Trump Stymies Labor Board by Firing Democrat Gwynne Wilcox, Congressional Labor Caucus (Jan. 28, 2025), https://laborcaucus.house.gov/media/in-the-news/trump-stymies-labor-board-by-firing-democrat-gwynne-wilcox. 

[46] Alexander T. MacDonald , Why the Firing of Gwynne Wilcox Could Be an Inflection Point for the NLRB—and Administrative Government, Fedsoc.org (Jan. 30, 2025), https://fedsoc.org/commentary/fedsoc-blog/why-the-firing-of-gwynne-wilcox-could-be-an-inflection-point-for-the-nlrb-and-administrative-government. 

[47] Andrea Hsu, 2 Officials Fired by Trump Return to Court to Challenge His Power, NPR (May 16, 2025), https://www.npr.org/2025/05/16/nx-s1-5399792/trump-harris-wilcox-firing-appeals-court; Firing NLRB Board Member Gwynne Wilcox, Economic Policy Institute (May 23, 2025), https://www.epi.org/policywatch/firing-nlrb-board-member-gwynne-wilcox/.  

[48] Admiral Linda L. Fagan, U.S. Coast Guard Notable People (last visited Dec. 29, 2025), https://www.history.uscg.mil/Browse-by-Topic/Notable-People/All/Article/2963124/admiral-linda-l-fagan/.

[49] Helene Cooper & Eric Schmitt, Trump Pulls the Military Back Into the Political and Culture Wars, N.Y. Times (Jan. 23, 2025), https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/23/us/politics/trump-military.html.

[50] Jonathan Allen & Courtney Kube, Trump administration evicts former Coast Guard leader from her house with 3 hours notice, NBC News (Feb. 5, 2025), https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-administration-evicts-former-coast-guard-linda-fagan-3-hours-rcna190820.

[51] Tara Copp & Michelle Boorstein, U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify swastikas, nooses as hate symbols, Washington Post (last updated Nov. 20, 2025), https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/11/20/coast-guard-swastika-noose/.

[52] Exec. Order No. 14183, 90 C.F.R. 8757 Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness (Feb. 3, 2025).

[53] Konstantin Toropin, Air Force Announces New Policy to Deny Transgender Troops Hearings Before Discharges, PBS News (Aug. 15, 2025), https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/air-force-announces-new-policy-to-deny-transgender-troops-hearings-before-discharges.

[54] John Ismay, Air Force Denies Early Retirement for Transgender Men and Women, N.Y. Times, (Aug. 8, 2025), https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/us/politics/air-force-transgender-service-members-early-retirement.html.

See also Deena Zaru, ‘Betrayal’: Transgender Service Member Speaks out after Being Denied Early Retirement by Air Force, ABC News (Aug. 9, 2025), https://abcnews.go.com/US/betrayal-transgender-service-member-speaks-after-denied-early/story?id=124476949 (Airforce Denied Transgenders’ Retirement).

[55] Id.

[56] Nathaniel Cline, Despite Federal Investigations, GMU President Will Remain in Role, Receive Pay Boost, Virginia Mercury (Aug. 1, 2025), https://virginiamercury.com/2025/08/01/despite-federal-investigations-gmu-president-will-remain-in-role-receive-pay-boost/. 

[57] Preston Williams, President Washington Says ‘It’s Mason’s Time,’ George Mason University (Oct. 21, 2021), https://www.gmu.edu/news/2021-10/president-washington-says-its-masons-time. 

[58] Stephanie Saul, At George Mason University, Trump Has Found an Unbending Adversary, N.Y. Times (Sep. 6, 2025), https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/06/us/george-mason-university-gregory-washington-trump-attack.html. 

[59] U.S. Department of Education Opens Title VI Investigation into George Mason University, U.S. Department of Education (July 10, 2025), https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-opens-title-vi-investigation-george-mason-university; “Justice Department Launches Second Investigation into George Mason University,” U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs (July 21, 2025), https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-launches-second-investigation-george-mason-university; U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights Finds George Mason University Has Violated Title VI, U.S. Department of Education (Aug. 22, 2025), https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-educations-office-civil-rights-finds-george-mason-university-has-violated-title-vi.

[60] Kyle Cheney & Danny Nguyen, ‘My Duty is to Call it Out’: Judge Accuses Trump Administration of Discrimination Against Minorities, Politico (June 16, 2025),  minoritieshttps://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/16/judge-rebuke-trump-nih-cuts-00409095.