On his first day back in the White House, emboldened by a 2023 Supreme Court ruling banning affirmative action in college admissions, President Trump signed an executive order titled “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing.” The order claims that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives have led to “immense” public waste and discrimination. Trump also directed all federal DEI staff to be placed on paid leave and eventually laid off.

In response, major companies in the private sector have begun scaling back their DEI initiatives. Some have made only minor adjustments, while others have dismantled entire branches of their organizations.

Watch the video above as Straight Arrow News contributor Ruben Navarrette breaks down Trump’s war on DEI, arguing that it ultimately reinforces a false narrative — one that “allows white men to take all the credit when things go right while blaming everyone else when things go wrong.”

The following is an excerpt from the above video:

However we got here, suddenly we are constantly being told that three simple concepts, diversity, equity, and inclusion, are what’s to blame for everything that ails America, from allegedly lowering of standards in the U.S. military to the devastating Los Angeles wildfires to the recent collision of an Army helicopter and a commercial airplane over the Potomac River that tragically results in the deaths of 67 people.

President Trump has suggested, without evidence or facts to back it up, and guided only by what he calls his “common sense,” that those poor souls who are being fished out of the Potomac died because of DEI. Trump appears to be placing much of the blame on the air traffic controllers. He claims that the current crop is subpar because President Joe Biden, for four years, threw quality standards out the window and put the emphasis on hiring women, people of color, members of the LGBT community, and people with disabilities.

To hear the anti-DEI crusaders tell it, everything was going gangbusters back in the day. Everyone had a shot at economic opportunity. All the various ethnic groups in America were getting along swimmingly, and there was peace and harmony in all the land as gumdrops fell from the sky. That is, until about five to 10 years ago, when corporations, government agencies and higher education began to foster diversity, equity and inclusion.