It's done: Joe Biden is now the former President of the United States, and the second non-consecutive term of Donald Trump has begun.
At a rally on Sunday ahead of his inauguration as the nation's 47th president, Trump said he would end his presecessor's "diversity, equity and inclusion" mandates and put back in place a merit-based system as well as repealing many other of Biden's executive orders.
“Every radical and foolish Executive Order of the Biden administration will be repealed within hours of when I take the oath of office. Oh, you’re gonna have a lot of fun watching television tomorrow,” Trump said.
He then focused on DEI specifically.
“But we’re going to stop the destructive and divisive Diversity Equity and Inclusion mandates all across government and private sector and return our country to the merit system,” Trump declared.
“You know, the Supreme Court ruled that the United States is allowed to go by the merit system, which is what made us great in the first place,” he added. “That was a big, big ruling that a lot of people don’t even know about, but that was a big, tremendous ruling.”
In 2023, the high court struck down the use of affirmative action in college admissions, reacting to policies that kept many deserving Asian students out of top colleges.
“And you’re focusing on character, competence, qualifications in all hiring decisions,” Trump said. “Now, you’re allowed to go by competence, ability, and genius. You don’t have to hire somebody to send up one of his rocket ships that doesn’t know anything about what’s happening.”
He definitely has a point: some aspects of DEI have resulted in less competent workers in roles where competence is essential.
We all hope that the U.S. has reached the point where no one is discriminated against because of their race, sex, or any other part of who they are.
When Trump was elected after vowing to get rid of DEI, it caused some companies to purge their DEI policies.
Amazon, Boeing, Lowe's, Meta, McDonald's, and several major car manufacturers are among those getting rid of DEI policies.
Several have cited the Supreme Court ruling in 2023 as justification for doing so.
Sources have said that the Pentagon is in "absolute disarray" as they expect Trump to fire military leaders who have pursued DEI over merit.
The agency has been deleting DEI pages from its website and some officials are reportedly in "panic mode" as they try to figure out if they are on a list to be cut.
