Jan. 21, 2025: Trump Rescinds the Equal Employment Opportunity EO of 1965, Day 2

The landmark order mandated non-discrimination in government employment and contracting.

Trump signed a sweeping executive order on Wednesday aimed at killing DEI programs in the federal government. Among the casualties of the new law is the longstanding Equal Opportunity Executive Order 11246, which, in its most recent form, made it illegal for the government to discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or national origin.

What Did Equal Employment Opportunity EO of 1965 Do?

While purporting to protect civil rights, Trump’s new order effectively undos six decades of executive policies aimed at promoting equal employment opportunity within private and public workplaces, including the government. It does not rescind the U.S.’s Equal Opportunity Laws, which Congress enacts, but it does point the way for potential future legislative action by a Congress led by Republicans, Trump’s political party.

Trump’s new EO attacks so-called “DEI initiatives,” which aim to promote diversity, equity and inclusion inside and outside of the government, programs which Trump and other Republicans in recent months have repeatedly derided as “woke.”

But while Trump’s allies might couch the order as an effort to kill “the woke-minded virus,” it goes much further. In the EO, he directs the U.S. Justice Department to “identify up to nine potential civil compliance investigations of publicly traded corporations, large non-profit corporations or associations, foundations with assets of 500 million dollars or more, State and local bar and medical associations, and institutions of higher education with endowments over 1 billion dollars.”

In other words, Trump is marshaling government resources to go after the businesses and institutions he claimed his administration would protect. If they have even a whiff of wanting to promote equal opportunity within their own ranks, they will find themselves under investigation by a truly weaponized Attorney General and Justice Department.

Trump Daily Countdown will continue to update you on the developing situation.