Twice in the last week, President Donald Trump struck two blows against radical wokeness.
On January 23rd, he issued an executive order outlawing DEI at the federal level.
s part of his flurry of initial executive actions, President Trump released an executive order titled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.” It is no mere public relations statement but a long and carefully drafted order that, if upheld and properly executed, will eliminate the blight of racially preferential treatment in the federal government; it also seeks boldly (and likely less successfully) to eliminate it from our culture at large by applying indirect pressure.
The order is truly sweeping in its breadth; its immediate effect is to uproot with one stroke the vast bulk of the federal infrastructure of affirmative action and DEI protocols and hiring practices. This is an edifice that was built up painstakingly over decades by one Democratic executive order after another, dating all the way back to the Johnson administration’s infamous 1965 Executive Order 11246, which first established “affirmative action” as a necessary criterion in government hiring and contracting decisions: Any company doing business with the federal government from that day forward has been required to comply with what the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission deems to be racially equitable in terms of hiring, salary, or promotion practices, or else take their case to court.
Now it is no more. E.O. 11246 has been repealed, along with four other Obama- and Clinton-era orders which implemented it. Companies contracting with the federal government will no longer be required by the Department of Labor to address racial or sexual “underrepresentation” with formal affirmative action plans. The federal government will now be commanded to immediately cease promoting “diversity,” cease “holding Federal contractors and subcontractors responsible for taking ‘affirmative action,’” and cease “allowing or encouraging Federal contractors and subcontractors to engage in workforce balancing based on race, color, sex, sexual preference, religion, or national origin.”
As anyone familiar with the current government contracting process is aware, shedding the cumbersome, expensive, and deeply unjust DEI “compliance” requirements will be an instantaneous victory not only for justice but also for the effectiveness of our government. But Trump’s executive order does not limit itself to undoing the mistakes of the past; it is aggressively forward-looking as well. In the past, government contractors had to promise compliance with affirmative action under penalty of nonpayment, but now they are required to sign terms certifying they do not “operate any programs promoting DEI that violate any applicable Federal anti-discrimination laws.”
Trump also makes clear his intent to apply painful public and government pressure on private-sector DEI practices as well, and does not cloak his reasons. As part of a section explicitly titled “Encourage the Private Sector to End Illegal DEI Discrimination and Preferences,” the order directs agency heads to compile lists of public companies, universities, and large foundations in order to name and shame “the most egregious and discriminatory DEI practitioners in each sector of concern” and consider civil-compliance investigations and possible civil action over their DEI programs. Furthermore, Section 5 of the E.O. puts higher education on notice that these rules will be applied to any college or university that receives federal grant money or participates in the federal student-loan assistance program — functionally speaking, every major university in America. (The order specifically states the Trump administration’s intent to force colleges to comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (2023), the landmark case striking down racial discrimination in public and private college admissions.)
Naturally, several aspects of this momentous executive order will be fiercely litigated. But expect the bulk of it to stand, and stand as a major achievement for Trump’s second term. The government’s ruinous racial policies over the past half century were created primarily by executive order, not legislation, and what was done with the mere stroke of a presidential pen can be undone by the same means.
Meanwhile, discriminatory practices have spread throughout academia and the private sector. The architects of this system have used legerdemain and moral bullying — especially the accusation of racism — to preserve and steadily extend it, even when it means defying the law. Now, President Trump wants to smoke them out.
After that, he struck a blow against transsexual madness.
President Trump on Monday night signed an executive order that is expected to eventually disqualify transgender individuals from serving or enlisting in the military on grounds of mental unfitness.
The order does not immediately bar transgender individuals from serving in the military, but directs the Pentagon to develop a policy on transgender service members within 30 days that prioritizes readiness. The current policy, according to the order, is “inconsistent with the medical, surgical, and mental health constraints on individuals with gender dysphoria.”
Gender dysphoria, the order states, is a mental condition that comes with bodily consequences that are incompatible with active duty and “conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life.” Those struggling with it “cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service,” the order states.
The order also reverses the Biden administration’s policy of allowing existing trans service members to receive coverage for transition-related medical procedures and bars those service members from sharing bathrooms, bedrooms, and changing areas with members of the opposite sex.
On his first day in office, Trump signed an order revoking the Biden administration’s 2021 directive that allowed transgender people to serve in the military while his administration prepared more comprehensive guidance. The new order explains that admitting trans soldiers is a liability to military lethality, which is necessary to protect and defend America from foreign enemies. Those who receive so-called treatment for gender dysphoria often become permanent patients of a medical industry, signing up for lifetime follow-up appointments that jeopardize deployability, or the ability of a service member to be deployed at sudden notice when duty calls.
The order points out that transgender individuals often seek medical procedures that leave them physically unable to perform for extended periods.
The order notes that transgenderism is also a mental illness that can interfere with military performance. Transgender risk of suicide is also a significant concern, as 81% of transgender adults in the U.S. have thought about suicide and 42 percent of transgender adults have attempted it, according to a 2023 study from the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law.
“To ensure we have the most lethal fighting force in the world, we will get transgender ideology the hell out of our military,” Trump said at a retreat with House Republicans on Monday. “It’s going to be gone.”
This follows hot on the heels of the Trump executive order that specifies that the American government will follow the realty of two sexes rather than woke transgender ideology.
Texans are applauding President Donald Trump’s executive order putting an end to radical gender ideology within the federal government and restoring the “biological truth” that there are only two sexes: male and female.
The executive order is entitled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”
Conservative activist Tracy Shannon—an outspoken critic of harmful “transgender” ideology and a well-known advocate within the Texas Legislature—called Trump’s executive order “great news.”
But she cautions the federal order does not completely kill the trans political movement, and work is still needed at the state and local levels.
“We need the legislation he is calling for to close the loopholes and put the nail in the coffin of this insidious and cancerous ideology,” Shannon posted on X.
“It isn’t going to just go away overnight,” she added. “It is not over yet.”
The executive order, signed by Trump on his first day back in office along with dozens of other orders, states:
Efforts to eradicate the biological reality of sex fundamentally attack women by depriving them of their dignity, safety, and well-being. The erasure of sex in language and policy has a corrosive impact not just on women but on the validity of the entire American system.
Basing Federal policy on truth is critical to scientific inquiry, public safety, morale, and trust in government itself.
“It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female. These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality,” Trump’s order reads. “Under my direction, the Executive Branch will enforce all sex-protective laws to promote this reality…”
The order defines “sex” as “an individual’s immutable biological classification,” either male or female, that does not include the concept of “gender identity.”
All federal agencies and employees are ordered to use the term “sex” and not “gender” in all applicable federal policies and documents.
Boom! I’ve only been pushing for the restoration of the hard-coded “sex” over the intentionally nebulous “gender” forever.
It’s a great week to be a conservative…or anyone of any political stripe who is a part of the reality-based community…
