Trump signs executive order targeting ‘DEI discrimination’ in federal contracting
TheGrio...
“This executive order is not only vague, but intellectually disingenuous and ignores existing laws,” Alphonso David, president and CEO of Global Black Economic Forum, tells theGrio.
President Donald Trump is doubling down on his anti-DEI agenda, signing a new executive order that seeks to crack down on what his administration calls “DEI discrimination” in federal contracting.
The order, signed on Thursday, calls on executive departments and agencies to take further steps to ensure that federal contractors and subcontractors are not engaging in “racially discriminatory DEI activities.” It seeks to require contractors to submit their books, records, and accounts to confirm compliance. If a contractor is found to be out of compliance, their contracts could be suspended or terminated.
“DEI activities are not only unethical and often illegal, but also cause inefficiencies, waste, and abuse within entities that engage in such practices,” the executive order reads.
The EO also claims that DEI practices impose “artificial costs” in hiring, promotion, and operations by preventing the “implementation of merit-based principles” and by creating “excessive workforce turnover by elevating immutable characteristics over job performance.” The order also claims that DEI activities create “unnecessary costs” by “reducing the pool of available labor by artificially limiting companies to hiring or promoting certain individuals, suppliers, or intermediaries based on their race or ethnicity.”
The president’s new order follows his signature anti-DEI orders signed when he first returned to office last year, which the Trump administration has used to claw back equity programs, grants, and offices intended to help close racial disparities in business procurement, education, housing, health care, and environmental harms. Many key provisions of Trump’s anti-DEI orders and subsequent actions remain under challenge in federal court.
The Trump administration has simultaneously pushed the narrative that white men are being discriminated against at large scale, despite them having the lowest unemployment rates and the highest share of wealth.
The latest move targeting federal contracting has the potential to further hurt Black businesses, which have been disproportionately impacted by Trump’s economic policies, including his global tariffs and now the president’s costly and deadly war in Iran. During the Biden-Harris administration, Black-owned businesses saw a modest increase in their share of federal contract funding, though they accounted for only 1.3% of total contracts awarded.
For decades, government jobs, including contracting, have been pillars for building up the Black middle class. Civil rights groups and advocates have argued that President Trump’s executive actions stand to threaten the Black economy at a time when Black Americans are seeing the highest unemployment rates since the COVID-19 pandemic and the highest among any racial group.
“This executive order is not only vague, but intellectually disingenuous and ignores existing laws,” said Alphonso David, president and CEO of Global Black Economic Forum. “The reality is that qualified people of color have been historically excluded from contracting opportunities based on their race and ethnicity—not merit.”
David explains to theGrio, “We are already seeing this approach play out at the state level, including in Texas, where efforts to dismantle the Historically Underutilized Business program have disrupted thousands of businesses and triggered legal challenges. This order signals a broader shift toward restricting access to one of the most important economic engines in this country: public procurement.”
He added, “Issuing an executive order to prohibit compliance with current civil rights law does not erase civil rights law, nor does it eliminate the remedies that exist to address real racial and ethnic discrimination.”