Trump warns higher education over ‘dangerous, degrading and immoral’ DEI teachings

President Donald Trump’s latest executive order seeks to relax diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices in federally funded higher education institutions in an effort to restore “merit-based opportunity,” according to the White House.

During his first two days in office, Trump issued a series of executive orders, including an order that all federal agencies close their DEI offices by Wednesday and put employees in those units on paid leave. To further his efforts to deter DEI, the President is initiating a federal review of such teachings and practices at educational institutions that receive federal funding.

“Institutions of higher education have adopted and are actively using dangerous, degrading and immoral biases based on race and gender under the guise of so-called ‘diversity, equity and inclusion,'” the White House said in an order released Tuesday.

The order requires the attorney general and the secretary of education to identify potential civil compliance investigations among institutions of higher education with endowments greater than $1 billion and, accordingly, develop action plans to “deter DEI programs or policies that constitute unlawful discrimination or privilege.”

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Within 120 days, the AG and the Secretary of Education will issue guidance to state and local educational institutions that receive federal funds or grants or that participate in the student loan program. The focus will be on ensuring compliance with the Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, a landmark case that held that race-based admissions practices violated the Fourteenth Amendment.

“Unlawful DEI and DEIA policies not only violate the letter and spirit of our long-standing federal civil rights laws, they also undermine our national unity, as they negate, discredit, and undermine traditional American values ​​of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement in favor of illegal, corrosive, and a harmful identity-based prey system,” the memo reads.

The executive order notes that it will not prevent educational institutions or agencies from engaging in “First Amendment-protected” speech.

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Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., presiding House The Education and Workforce Committee applauded Trump for opposing the controversial practice.

“For too long, social justice warriors have waged a crusade to empower DEI in every corner of America. Instead of merit, skill and ability, DEI devotees have pushed policies that are antithetical to American exceptionalism,” Walberg said. “From the classroom to the boardroom, Americans have felt the negative effects. The DEI has inflated education budgets while telling students what to think instead of how to think.”

Jonathan Turley, a Fox News contributor and Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University, suggested in an analysis of the executive order that it would “send a shockwave through higher education, and the resulting agency actions will likely trigger a tsunami of lawsuits.”

Meanwhile, one education expert suggested that universities could begin to pre-align with the new DEI measures.

“It seems very likely that higher education institutions will be pre-aligned, even before the Department of Education or the National Science Foundation write it into certain projects,” Eboo Patel, founder and president of Interfaith America, told the Chronicle of Higher Education. “Universities will adopt the spirit of the executive order.”

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Nearly 10 states, including one with a Democratic governor, have already either banned or prohibited the use of DEI initiatives in public colleges and universities.