US President Donald Trump is expected to officially move to remove diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives from the defence department, one of several military-focused executive orders he is planning to sign on Monday.
A second order will task US officials with formulating a policy on transgender troops.
A third executive order will reinstate military personnel who were discharged for refusing Covid-19 vaccines.
Removing DEI programmes from within the federal government was one of Trump’s central campaign promises – and one that he moved swiftly to implement upon taking office last week.
DEI programmes aim to promote participation in workplaces by people from a range of backgrounds.
Their backers say they address historical underrepresentation and discrimination against certain groups, including racial minorities, but critics say such programmes can themselves be discriminatory.
The Trump administration claims that removing these initiatives from the US military will help boost recruitment levels.
Defence officials have previously said that the military services collectively missed recruitment goals by 41,000 personnel in the 2023 fiscal year.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has promised to eliminate similar initiatives from the military, telling reporters on Monday that “there are more executive orders coming”.
Removing DEI from the military
The order include a ban on what the administration considers discriminatory race- or sex-based preferences by any branch of the military, Department of Defense or the Department of Homeland Security, a White House official confirmed to the BBC.
Additionally, any remaining DEI-related bureaucracy will be eliminated from those departments.
It remains unclear what specific programmes will be affected by the order.
In a December 2020 report, the department’s Board on Diversity and Inclusion recommended a number of steps, including the removal of “aptitude test barriers that adversely impact diversity” and incorporating the “value of cultivating diversity and inclusion” into leadership and professionalism curricula.
Over the weekend, it was reported that the US Air Force was reviewing material on the role of black and female pilots during World War Two from its training programmes as part of an effort to comply with Trump’s DEI orders.
But on Sunday, military officials clarified that certain curricula will not be removed from basic military training.
During the campaign in June, Trump said the military’s purpose is “to win wars, not to be woke”.
Hegseth told reporters on Monday that the job of the military is “lethality and readiness and war fighting”.
“Military training will be focused on the readiness of what our troops in the field need to deter our enemies,” he added.
The move forms part of a larger, government-wide effort to remove DEI practices from the federal workforce.
Immediately after taking office, Trump ordered that all US government staff working on DEI schemes were to be put on immediate paid administrative leave.
The White House gave them until 17:00 EST (2200 GMT) the following day to be put on leave before the offices and programmes in question were shut down.
In an order, Trump said that the programmes were “dangerous, demeaning and immoral”.
On Monday, the Department of Veterans Affairs also said it had has placed almost 60 employees on leave as it works to implement Trump’s order last week to eliminate DEI from federal workplaces.
In a statement, the department said that the salary of the employees – who were solely focused on DEI initiatives – were collectively paid about $8m, an average of about $136,000 (£109,000) per year. One employee was making over $220,000 a year
(BBC).
