Trump signed EO 14151 eliminating all DEI offices, programs, and equity-related grants across the executive branch

On January 20, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14151, "Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing," on his first day back in office. The order directed every executive agency head to terminate, within 60 days, all DEI and DEIA offices, positions, programs, equity action plans, equity-related grants and contracts, and environmental justice programs. Agency employees whose primary duties involved DEI work were to be placed on administrative leave immediately, pending the 60-day termination. The order further required agencies to identify and report any programs that had been "misleadingly relabeled" to preserve pre-inauguration DEI functions, and established a coordination structure: OMB, OPM, and the Attorney General were designated to run monthly compliance meetings across the executive branch.

EO 14151 targeted infrastructure built over decades under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and successive equal-opportunity executive orders. Affected programs included not just internal agency offices but externally-funded equity grants to universities, nonprofits, and state agencies. A companion order, EO 14173 ("Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity"), extended similar termination requirements to federal contractors and grantees. Downstream agency actions citing EO 14151 as authority included the dissolution of the Social Security Administration's civil rights office (February 25, 2025), the EPA's elimination of its Office of Environmental Justice and Civil Rights (April 21, 2025), and the DOJ's directive to dismiss disparate-impact enforcement lawsuits (February 26, 2025).

On February 21, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland issued a nationwide preliminary injunction blocking the "Termination Provision" of EO 14151 (which required termination of equity-related grants and contracts) and the "Certification Provision" of EO 14173, finding those provisions constituted viewpoint-based discrimination under the First Amendment. The Fourth Circuit stayed the injunction on appeal in March 2025 and on February 6, 2026 vacated it entirely, holding that plaintiffs' facial challenge was unlikely to succeed on the merits. Litigation in other circuits remains ongoing.