If you walked into a federal agency office back in 2023, you’d probably see a DEIA (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility) officer. Fast forward to today, January 2026, and those offices are basically ghost towns. Some have been physically dismantled. Others have been rebranded into "Merit Offices," but most are just... gone.
It happened fast.
People expected a slow burn, but what we got was a blitz. On January 20, 2025—literally hours after the inauguration—President Trump signed a stack of papers that fundamentally shifted how the American government views race, gender, and "merit" in the workplace.
The Day One Shockwave: Ending Radical DEI
The first big one was the executive order titled "Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing." It didn't just suggest changes. It ordered the immediate termination of every DEI and DEIA office across the federal government. We’re talking about a 60-day deadline to wipe the slate clean. The order targeted the Biden-era policies, specifically EO 13985, which had pushed agencies to prioritize equity in everything from hiring to grant-making.
The directive was blunt. Agency heads had to notify their staff by 5 p.m. on January 22, 2025, that these offices were closing. They were even asked to sniff out "coded language"—essentially looking for anyone trying to hide DEI work under names like "culture and belonging" or "organizational excellence."
It’s intense.
Thousands of employees were placed on paid leave almost instantly while "reduction-in-force" (RIF) plans were drawn up. By the end of March 2025, the "DEI officer" job title was effectively extinct in the federal payroll.
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Trump Executive Orders DEI: The Private Sector Pivot
A lot of folks thought this would stay inside the D.C. bubble. They were wrong.
The second major pillar, "Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity," turned the lens toward federal contractors and the broader private sector. This order revoked the decades-old EO 11246, which had required federal contractors to maintain affirmative action programs since the Johnson administration.
Suddenly, the "diversity" requirement for a $50,000 government contract vanished.
But here is where it gets legally spicy. The administration didn't just stop at revoking rules. They weaponized the False Claims Act (FCA).
The "Materiality" Trap
The DOJ, under Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy AG Todd Blanche, started arguing that if a company claims to be "colorblind" in its federal contracts but actually runs race-conscious DEI programs internally, they are committing fraud against the government.
Basically, the logic goes:
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- You signed a contract saying you don't discriminate.
- Your DEI program (in the government's view) is a form of discrimination.
- Therefore, you lied to get paid.
- Give us the money back—plus triple damages.
It’s a novel theory. It’s also terrifying for General Counsel at Fortune 500 companies. We've seen "Civil Investigative Demands" landing on the desks of tech giants and telecom firms throughout 2025. They aren't just looking at HR policies; they're looking at how bonuses are tied to diversity metrics.
Redefining "Sex" and Biological Truth
You can't talk about these DEI orders without talking about the "Gender Order." Formally known as "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government," this order wiped "gender identity" out of the federal vocabulary. It mandated that the U.S. government recognize only two sexes: male and female, defined by "immutable biological classification."
This changed everything from how the VA handles healthcare to how the Bureau of Prisons houses inmates. It even reached into the office bathroom. The order specifically tasks the DOJ with protecting the "right to single-sex spaces" in the workplace.
For a lot of trans employees in federal roles, 2025 was a year of "stealth" or "exit." Use of preferred pronouns on government email addresses was banned. Period.
What's Actually Happening on the Ground in 2026?
Honestly, the impact is a bit of a mixed bag depending on where you look.
In the federal government, the "purge" is nearly complete. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been scanning agency websites, scrubbing words like "equity" and "social justice." If you search a government site for "LGBTQ+ resources" today, you’re likely to hit a 404 error page.
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But in the private sector? It’s more of a "chilled" environment.
Most big companies haven't totally deleted their DEI programs. They’ve just changed the names. "Diversity" is now "Broad Talent Acquisition." "Equity" is "Fairness." However, the mechanics—the quotas or the specific "diversity hires"—have mostly been paused to avoid a DOJ lawsuit.
The Legal Counter-Punch
It’s not all one-way traffic. Groups like the ACLU and various unions have been filing lawsuits since February 2025. They argue these orders exceed presidential authority and violate the First and Fifth Amendments.
A federal judge in Maryland actually issued a temporary restraining order on some of the funding-related clauses back in early 2025, but the U.S. Appeals Court lifted that injunction in March. As of right now, the orders are the law of the land.
Actionable Insights: Navigating the New Reality
If you’re a business owner or a leader trying to figure out how to handle the current Trump executive orders DEI landscape, you need to be surgical.
- Audit Your Language: If you are a federal contractor, review your internal handbooks immediately. Avoid "diversity targets" or "underrepresented groups" in your official policy documents. Switch to "skill-based" and "merit-based" terminology.
- The FCA Risk is Real: If your HR department is still using "diversity scorecards" to determine executive bonuses, you have a massive target on your back for a False Claims Act investigation. Decouple compensation from demographic metrics.
- Focus on Skills, Not Labels: The current administration isn't against hiring people from different backgrounds; they are against preferencing them because of those backgrounds. Shift your recruitment to "wide-net" strategies that find talent in unexpected places without using race or gender as a filter.
- Watch the Courts: This is a moving target. The Supreme Court is expected to weigh in on the "FCA as an anti-DEI tool" theory by the end of the 2026 term. Keep your legal team on speed dial.
The "DEI era" as we knew it from 2020 to 2024 is over. The new era is about "Biological Truth" and "Merit," and the government has the receipts—and the subpoenas—to back it up.
Key Next Steps
- Review all active federal contracts for the new "Materiality" clause.
- Conduct an internal "language audit" of HR manuals to remove terminology currently flagged by the DOJ.
- Re-evaluate Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) to ensure they are "affinity-based" rather than "preferential-benefit" based to avoid being classified as "illegal DEI."