The meaning of Donald Trump’s war on woke workers

A worthwhile idea is straying into cruelty and, possibly, illegality

IT AMOUNTS TO a bonfire of rainbow tape. Donald Trump has declared war on DEI, or diversity, equity and inclusion. He is already reshaping American institutions. Companies are abandoning programmes that they had put in place to increase the racial and gender diversity of their workforces (or at least renaming them to avoid Mr Trump’s ire). The whiplash has been most severe inside the federal government. There, Mr Trump’s people, in the form of Elon Musk and his DOGEtenants, are uprooting DEI staff, programmes and contracts with unseemly relish. A reasonable idea for reform is straying into self-defeating cruelty and, possibly, outright illegality.

This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “Vox populi, vox DEI ”

From the February 8th 2025 edition

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