Trump's anti-DEI brigade prepares to take power
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President-elect Trump's initial Cabinet picks show he's moving swiftly to implement the anti-trans, anti-DEI and anti-social justice agenda that underpinned his reelection campaign.
Why it matters: In the eyes of many Republicans, Trump's decisive election victory vindicated their hostility toward nebulous "woke" ideologies. In practice, their plans could mean purging the federal government of policies Democrats supported to reverse what they saw as unfairness and inequalities.
Trump's latest wave of Cabinet nominees include Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense, Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence and Matt Gaetz for attorney general — all of whom have blasted DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) policies as racially divisive.
- Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy — two of the most prominent critics of what they call "the woke mind virus" — have been tasked with "slashing and burning" federal spending from outside the government.
The big picture: "Woke" was a term popularized after the 2020 murder of George Floyd to describe plans to attack systemic racism with policies that encouraged cultural awareness and understanding.
- But conservatives have recast the term as a liberal threat to gender norms and what they consider traditional values.
- In recent years, Republicans in Congress and in red states have waged a legislative "war on woke" by targeting trans rights, racial diversity policies in academia, and environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles in business.
- Now, with control of the White House and both branches of Congress in 2025, Trump and the GOP have their sights trained on auditing and overhauling three agencies in particular: the Pentagon, the Justice Department and the Department of Education.
Driving the news: Trump's shock nomination of Hegseth, a Fox News host, for defense secretary is the clearest sign yet that the president-elect wants his incoming Cabinet to be staffed by conservatives who oppose DEI initiatives.
- Hegseth, a decorated combat veteran, wrote a New York Times bestseller this year accusing the Pentagon's leadership of sabotaging military readiness and recruitment by prioritizing DEI.
- He has called for the firing of Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., a four-star Air Force fighter pilot with 130 combat flying hours during his 40 years of service, for being too "woke." Hegseth suggested the top U.S. general might not have ascended to the role if he weren't Black.
- "Any general, admiral, whatever that was involved in any of the DEI 'woke' sh*t has gotta go," Hegseth said on a recent podcast, in which he also voiced opposition to women serving in combat roles.
Reality check: The military has fallen short of its recruiting goals in recent years, but Pentagon personnel officials have largely dismissed the notion that diversity issues are the main culprit.
- Low unemployment, private-sector wage growth and poor messaging about the benefits of enlistment — especially for Gen Z — have created a challenging environment for recruiting, officials testified last year.
Zoom in: Trump and his conservative allies have long seen the Department of Education as being at the center of their mission to eliminate what they view as left-wing ideologies in the classroom.
- Trump has proposed dismantling the department entirely — and vowed to "cut federal funding for any school pushing critical race theory, radical gender ideology and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children."
- Project 2025, Trump allies' sweeping vision for overhauling the government, calls the Education Department a "one-stop shop for the woke education cartel."
Critical race theory, which holds that racism is baked into the formation of the nation and ingrained in our legal, financial and education systems, is rarely taught in K-12 schools.
- And Trump won't be able to eliminate the Education Department without Congress — though he's likely to roll back protections for transgender students that were approved during the Biden administration.
Between the lines: The "anti-woke" crusade's best chance to enact society-wide changes could come through the Justice Department, which Trump has nominated Gaetz to lead.
- Gaetz, a flame-throwing loyalist who has labeled DEI "racist and dangerous," would oversee a purge of career officials and the renovation — or potential shuttering — of DOJ's Civil Rights Division.
- Trump transition official Mark Paoletta accused career DOJ officials this week of blocking efforts to sue Yale University for alleged anti-Asian and anti-white discrimination during Trump's first term, and warned staff against "sabotaging" the new administration's agenda.
- "The American people overwhelmingly want to end DEI, ban boys from playing in girls' sports and using girls' locker rooms, secure our border, and deport illegal aliens," Paoletta wrote on X.
What to watch: Democrats are still licking their wounds from an election in which many believe a backlash to DEI policies — especially on transgender people's rights, the focus of repeated GOP campaign ads — harmed them with swing voters.
- While the party debates how to move forward, activists are urging them to focus on a far more pressing demand: Resisting a Trump agenda that could roll back decades of gains since the Civil Rights Movement.
