Trump orders colleges to report race data
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President Trump signs an executive order flanked by Education Secretary Linda McMahon in Washington, DC, on July 31, 2025. Photo: Jim Watson / AFP via Getty Images.
President Trump signed a memorandum on Thursday requiring higher learning institutions receiving federal funding to provide the administration with their race-based admissions data, according to a document reviewed by Axios.
Why it matters: The memo is Trump's latest move to target the diversity, equity and inclusion policies in America's institutions that the administration says have gone too far by disenfranchising white people.
What they're saying: "President Trump is ending discriminatory practices that are illegal, strip opportunities and scholarships from hardworking students, and waste taxpayer dollars," the fact sheet says.
- The memo directs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to revamp the government's data collection system, expand the scope of required admissions reporting and increase accuracy checks to help provide additional "transparency."
- The fact sheet states that the lack of available public data continues to "raise concerns about whether race is actually used in admissions decisions."
Catch up quick: The Supreme Court ruled that schools can't consider an applicant's racial background in the admissions process in 2023, drastically altering the way that colleges can ensure they have a diverse student body.
- The policy, known as affirmative action, was implemented to help students of color receive the same educational opportunities previously only open to white people.
- Once implemented, affirmative action was successful in helping lower-income students earn similar take home pay on average as affluent students who attended the same college, according to a report from the New York Times.
By the numbers: White students made up 91% of college enrollment in the 1970s, according to a joint report by the U.S. Commerce Department and the Census Bureau.
- That number dropped to about 50% in 2021, according to the latest data available from the National Center for Education Statistics.
Zoom out: Race-conscious policies in America's schools were implemented to provide equal opportunities for students of color, as guaranteed for all under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
- Trump and his conservative allies have pushed to reinterpret those protections as "anti-white racism" that benefits people of color at the expense of white people, a reframing that is at odds with the nation's history.
- Earlier this year, the administration announced that it was launching investigations into 45 colleges over allegations that they participated in "race-exclusionary practices."
Go deeper: Exclusive: Trump allies plot anti-racism protections — for white people
