When President Trump rolled out his earth-shattering executive order that forbade DEI throughout the federal government (Culling the Herd: Thanks to Trump’s EO, DEI Departments Are Shuttered, Employees Placed on Leave), he anticipated that the forces of the “resistance” would work behind the scenes avoid obeying. He knew they would rename organizations and hide the DEI commandos in other positions so the whole hideous mess could be reassembled, like Frankenstein’s monster, at a future date. That is why the Office of Personnel Management required all agency heads to send this memo to every employee (Trump Takes Aim at DEI in Corporate America and Academia As Well As Carving It From Government):
Dear agency employees,
We are taking steps to close all agency DEIA offices and end all DEIA-related contracts in accordance with President Trump’s executive orders titled Ending Radical and WastefulGovernment DEI Programs and Preferencing and Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions.
These programs divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars, and resulted in shameful discrimination.
We are aware of efforts by some in government to disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language. If you are aware of a change in any contract description or personnel position description since November 5, 2024 to obscure the connection between the contract and DEIA or similar ideologies, please report all facts and circumstances toDEIAtruth@opm.gov within 10 days
There will be no adverse consequences for timely reporting this information. However, failure to report this information within 10 days may result in adverse consequences.
Thank you for your attention to this important matter.
As this order affects government contractors as well as federal agencies, we’ve seen some scurrying around on the dark edge of academia to avoid compliance.
Unfortunately, it seems like the Air Force may have decided it was not covered. Even though the unofficial mouthpiece of the Department of Defense declared that the Army and Air Force sweep out DEI-coded programs:
The new leaders of the Army and Air Force ordered forces worldwide to sweep out offices, programs, committees and even press releases posted on websites that appear to relate to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives, widely known as DEI programs.
The memos, signed by the acting Army and Air Force secretaries, echo President Donald Trump’s executive order issued Monday that repealed all ‘DEI’ policies, communications and references across the federal government.
Army officials were instructed to remove all outward-facing media of diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility, or DEIA, initiatives as of 5 p.m. Jan. 23 and cancel related trainings “immediately.” Officials were also asked to report actions taken to comply with the memo.
There is evidence of efforts by some USAF units to ignore the executive order. This is an example from Minot (North Dakota) Air Force Base. Here, you have a memo that laughs at the executive order and clearly states they have renamed the office.
This is an example from Luke (Arizona) AFB:
The US Air Force Academy has rebranded its DEI program as “Dignity Respect and Leadership” and is continuing on.
Removing this garbage from the military—and I’m under no illusion that the Air Force is unique in having commands that are surreptitiously telling the Commander-in-Chief to get lost—will require diligent effort and ruthlessness. Anyone involved in rebranding USAF DEI programs must be terminated if civilian or administratively separated if military. What we are seeing here is really nothing less than a mutiny.
