Trump’s 100 Days: Three Important Changes That Impact People All over America
One hundred days after returning to power, Donald Trump has accused federal cuts, including tariffs, immigration crackdowns and the dismantling of the DEI.
The White House has informed Corporate America that President Donald Trump plans to replace diversity, equity and inclusion with “merit.”
Starring alongside Press Secretary Caroline Leavbit during a briefing on Thursday morning, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller trumpeted the president’s efforts to dismantle the federal and private sector days.
“This administration has awakened and strangled our society to the communists, it has awakened and strangled it to day,” Miller said.
“It’s not just a social and cultural issue, it’s an economic issue,” he continued. “When we hire, retain and hire based on the merits that President Trump has directed, we will drive innovation, grow, invest and encourage job creation.”
Trump’s anti-DEI campaign began during his first term, but is on his second Hyperdrive.
He wiped out diversity initiatives in the federal government and military, threatened to strip billions of dollars in federal funds and grants from universities, and threatened to roll back diversity initiatives to large corporations or risk losing federal contracts.
His actions have led to widespread changes in diversity programs at major companies across the country.
Leavitt told reporters that Trump stands on “the promise of equality of color brands in the constitution.”
“Day is trying to divide Americans into one another and oppose each other based on their constant characteristics. President Trump has put an end to that,” she said. “In President Trump’s America, personal dignity, hard work and excellence are the only things that determine whether you move on or not.”
After George Floyd’s 2020 murder forced a historical calculation of racial disparities in America, the DEI initiative to increase the sustained low proportion of women, black and Hispanic executives has taken away more solid detention.
The number of black executives rose nearly 27% between 2020 and 2022 at S&P 100 companies, according to a USA Today analysis of federal government-gathered workforce data.
That momentum sparked a strong rebound.
In 2023, the ranks of black executives fell by 3%, twice as many as white executives from the previous year, USA Today found.
Among Day critics, the chief was Miller, a veteran of Trump’s first administration. His American First Legal Advocacy Organization has issued many legal challenges against common practices such as setting employment goals for diversity. Miller said these targets were racial allocations that were illegal for women and people of color.
“We’re going to have a system of merit,” Miller said Thursday.
Dei’s supporters say Dei is not in conflict with Merit. In fact, DEI says it is important to build a system that ensures that individuals are rewarded for their merits alone.
“The best performing organizations know that having meritocracy requires ensuring that diverse candidates have the opportunity to show their achievements just as well as others,” wrote Paul Argenti, professor of corporate communications at Dartmouth, in a post on LinkedIn defending business cases for diversity.
USA Today reported Thursday that the business world appears not ready to abandon DEI despite increasing pressure from the Trump administration.
Even if some companies remove their commitments, others, including Costco, Marriott, Starbucks and Cisco, are publicly defending Day.
The “Silent Majority” continues to work despite growing political pressure to pay off Dei, sociology professor Donald Thomaskovic Day told USA Today.
Only 8% of business leaders surveyed by Littler’s law firms are seriously considering changes to the DEI program as a result of the Trump administration’s executive order. Almost half said they have no plans for a new rollback or further rollback.
“The majority of organizations are simply quiet and have not retreated or advocated from the DEI program in public squares,” said Thomaskovic Day, who runs the Center for Employment Equity at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.