By Andrea Shalal and Matt Spetalnick
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. agencies under new President Donald Trump are pushing to implement his mandate to reshape the federal bureaucracy, encouraging employees to report any covert efforts to maintain separate programs and lay off more than 150 state and federal officials. foreign policy.
The Republican president has made little secret of his widespread disdain for federal workers and especially for diversity, coordination and inclusion programs, which promote opportunities for women, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ people and other traditionally underrepresented groups.
In a video speech on Thursday at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Trump said his orders ending the DEI programs would make America a “right country” again.
“These are stupid policies, both in government and in the private sector,” he said.
Civil rights advocates say DEI programs are needed to address chronic inequality and racism, but Trump and his supporters say the effort ends up unfairly discriminating against some Americans.
A memo distributed to thousands of federal workers in the state on Wednesday instructed workers to turn in their associates who want to “hide” DEI's efforts by using “coded language,” warning that failure to disclose relevant information will result in “serious consequences.”
The messages carry the imprimatur of high-level Trump appointees: the State Department memo was signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, for example, while the Department of Veterans Affairs email was signed by Acting Secretary of Veterans Affairs Todd Hunter.
Officials in charge of DEI programs at several agencies and departments were placed on leave Wednesday, and their offices were set to close permanently at the end of the month.
There were other signs that Trump's order was having an impact. The US Federal Reserve has cleaned up the “Diversity and Inclusion” section on its website, with previous links to the central bank's diversity standards statement and data on racial, ethnic and gender composition of the economy and researchers now incomplete on the home page.
The anti-diversity measures were part of Trump's broader campaign targeting the federal bureaucracy, which he has at times criticized as a “deep state” that secretly works against his agenda.
About 160 employees at the National Security Council, from the State Department, the Pentagon and other parts of the US government, were told during a short call on Wednesday to turn in their weapons and badges and go home, three of whom were NSC officials. he told Reuters.
NSC spokesman Brian Hughes said Trump's national security adviser, Mike Waltz, had authorized a full staff review.
“It is absolutely necessary for Mr. Waltz to ensure that the NSC staff is committed to implementing President Trump's America First agenda to protect our national security and to use tax dollars wisely for American workers and women,” Hughes said.
This news surprised the workers, who were expecting new assignments or perhaps a nice speech, according to one of the officers who had been talking to his colleagues on the phone.
The workers, known as “details” — career diplomats, military officers and civil servants — were not fired, and most will return to their home agencies, one said.
But the move leaves the council less able to respond quickly to domestic or foreign crises, and could actually make it harder for the Trump administration to implement foreign policy, former officials said.
It was not immediately clear how many employees remain at the NSC. About 70 former political appointees left with the Biden administration, and about 60 new officials joined the Trump administration, the sources said.
REMOVAL OF EMPLOYMENT PROTECTION
Trump has suspended nearly all federal hiring and signed an executive order on his first day in office Monday that will allow his administration to fire at will tens of thousands of government workers, who have historically enjoyed job protections that protect them from political affiliation.
The order, known as Schedule F, would allow Trump to fill those positions with hand-picked loyalists. The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents about 150,000 workers in 30 agencies, filed a lawsuit challenging the move.
“This gleeful hatred of federal workers will lead to nothing,” Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, who represents 140,000 workers in Virginia, told reporters.
Trump has tried to prevent private companies that receive government contracts from using DEI programs and has asked government agencies to identify any that could be subject to public investigation.
In Tuesday's order, Trump rescinded a 1965 executive order requiring federal contractors to use affirmative action to ensure equal opportunity and prevent discrimination in employment.
The decades-old order, signed by Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson, was seen as an important moment of progress in the civil rights movement, which came at a time when black Americans faced the threat of violence and “Jim Crow” laws that prevented them. from voting and living in predominantly white communities.
The federal government has awarded $739 billion in contracts in fiscal year 2023, according to the Government Accountability Office.