Trump’s Anti-DEI Brigade Prepares to Take Power

President-elect Trump‘s initial Cabinet picks show he’s moving swiftly to implement the anti-trans, anti-DEI and anti-social justice agenda that underpinned his reelection campaign.

Why it matters: In the eyes of many Republicans, Trump’s decisive election victory vindicated their hostility toward nebulous “woke” ideologies. In practice, their plans could mean purging the federal government of policies Democrats supported to reverse what they saw as unfairness and inequalities.

Trump’s latest wave of Cabinet nominees include Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense, Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence and Matt Gaetz for attorney general — all of whom have blasted DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) policies as racially divisive.

• Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy — two of the most prominent critics of what they call “the woke mind virus” — have been tasked with “slashing and burning” federal spending from outside the government.

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Driving the news: Trump’s shock nomination of Hegseth, a Fox News host, for defense secretary is the clearest sign yet that the president-elect wants his incoming Cabinet to be staffed by conservatives who oppose DEI initiatives.

• Hegseth, a decorated combat veteran, wrote a New York Times bestseller this year accusing the Pentagon’s leadership of sabotaging military readiness and recruitment by prioritizing DEI.

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Zoom in: Trump and his conservative allies have long seen the Department of Education as being at the center of their mission to eliminate what they view as left-wing ideologies in the classroom.

• Trump has proposed dismantling the department entirely — and vowed to “cut federal funding for any school pushing critical race theory, radical gender ideology and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children.”

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Between the lines: The “anti-woke” crusade’s best chance to enact society-wide changes could come through the Justice Department, which Trump has nominated Gaetz to lead.

• Gaetz, a flame-throwing loyalist who has labeled DEI “racist and dangerous,” would oversee a purge of career officials and the renovation — or potential shuttering — of DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.
• Trump transition official Mark Paoletta accused career DOJ officials this week of blocking efforts to sue Yale University for alleged anti-Asian and anti-white discrimination during Trump’s first term, and warned staff against “sabotaging” the new administration’s agenda.
• “The American people overwhelmingly want to end DEI, ban boys from playing in girls’ sports and using girls’ locker rooms, secure our border, and deport illegal aliens,” Paoletta wrote on X.

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