WashingtonOn Friday, federal agencies hurried to follow executive orders issued by President Donald Trump that sought to reduce diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
The executive orders sparked a rush of emails and memos that NBC News was able to access, which changed the guidelines for employees in the military, intelligence agencies, and other civilian departments with regard to employee resource groups and the celebration of cultural awareness events.
According to a memo obtained by NBC News, the Defense Intelligence Agency issued an executive order this week to halt all events and activities associated with Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Black History Month, Juneteenth, LGBTQ Pride Month, Holocaust Remembrance Day, and other “special observances” in order to comply with President Donald Trump’s directive.
Eleven observances that are currently prohibited were enumerated in the document. Additionally, it stated that all “employee networking groups” and affinity groups are immediately put on hold.
The instruction follows the Trump administration’s stated goal of targeting any initiatives seen to support diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout the federal government.
A DIA official responded that the agency “is working with the Department of Defense to fully implement all Executive Orders and Administration guidance in a timely manner” when asked why the DIA letter was issued.
We want to hear from employees of the federal government. Please contact us using one of these methods or send an email to [email protected] if your agency has received a memo similar to this one.
According to some current and former officials, other U.S. intelligence organizations are likewise attempting to stop or stop any operations that can be seen as endorsing previous DEI policies. According to the sources, officials are taking the precautionary route rather than risking not following the administration’s directives, even if the agencies are still working to decide what events or activities would be banned.
According to an excerpt from a memo obtained by NBC News, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which is in charge of the nation’s intelligence services, recently sent written instructions to staff members stating that DEI-related boards and working groups have been reduced and that no official work time or workspaces should be used for DEI-related activities. According to the memo, any further travel associated with these events has also been canceled.
A similar email was sent to Pentagon chiefs on Friday, directing them to stop allocating official resources, such as man-hours, to cultural awareness months, with immediate effect.
According to the message, both civilians and service members will still be allowed to attend these activities in an unofficial capacity and after hours.
According to a spokesman, the Central Intelligence Agency is implementing the executive order to discontinue DEI programs.
Executive Order compliance is being followed by CIA. In an email, a spokeswoman stated, “We are totally focused on our foreign intelligence mission.”
The administration’s efforts to ban activities commemorating Martin Luther King Day, the Holocaust, or Americans’ ethnic history, according to former intelligence officials, run the risk of backfiring and discouraging prospective recruits from joining the intelligence services.
In order to guarantee that the nation has intelligence professionals with linguistic abilities and cultural backgrounds that enhance intelligence collecting overseas, the CIA and other spy organizations have been looking to hire from a more varied pool of talent for decades.
According to the former senior official, “I genuinely believe it could harm our ability to do our job as an intelligence community.”
Our goal is to choke off talent pipelines that were already limited. “And that will deprive our national security establishment and intelligence community of vital knowledge, talent, skills, and language that could be useful in trying to get someone into a foreign country,” the former official continued.
NBC News was able to get a document from the Office of Personnel Management on Friday afternoon that mandated that all mentions of “gender ideology” be eliminated throughout the federal government by 5 p.m.
According to the message, this include eliminating references from all publicly accessible websites and social media profiles. It also specifically mandated that Outlook prompts that asked employees to type their pronouns be removed.
State Department staff have also been directed to eliminate any gender-identifying pronouns from their email signatures by Friday at 5 p.m., in accordance with that new directive.
In an email with the subject line “Defending Women” that was examined by NBC News, the new Under Secretary for Management Ambassador Tibor P. Nagy stated that the Department of State is examining all agency programs, contracts, and grants that support or instill gender ideology, and we are eliminating outward-facing media that does the same. Gender ideology-related trainings, forms, and plans have previously been reviewed by bureaus.
The Justice Department announced last week that all of the DEI programs would be shut down, stating that “These programs divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars, and resulted in shameful discrimination.”
“Efforts to divide the force to put one group ahead of another erode camaraderie and threaten mission execution,” the Pentagon document said Friday, prohibiting the use of government resources for cultural awareness months.
A directive signed by Trump on his first day in office called for “the termination of all discriminatory programs, including illegal DEI and ‘diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility’ (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in the Federal Government.”
Last week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services sent out a similar email informing staff members that all affinity organizations, also called employee resource groups, were “canceled and special observances are being disbanded.”
Both the public and private sectors have employee resource groups (ERGs), which are employee-led, voluntary organizations for persons with comparable experiences or backgrounds. Typical groups include those for women, veterans, Black employees, Native Americans, and LGBTQ individuals, among others.
The Justice Department’s LGBTQ employee resource group, DOJ Pride, which has existed for 30 years, is among the other agencies that have terminated their ERGs.
When asked by NBC News if Trump intends to follow tradition and sign a proclamation regarding Black History Month before its commencement on Saturday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt gave her response during a news briefing on Friday.
“The president is eager to sign an announcement honoring Black History Month. In fact, I had a conversation with our wonderful staff secretary. It is currently undergoing approval and will be prepared for the president’s signature tomorrow, marking the start of that process,” Leavitt stated.
The declaration was later signed by Trump.
He wrote, “I urge public officials, educators, librarians, and all Americans to commemorate this month with suitable programs, ceremonies, and activities.” He described it as a time to honor the numerous black American patriots who have made significant contributions to the history of our country.
During the Biden administration, barely four years ago, Juneteenth was declared a federal holiday. The celebration honors the abolition of slavery in the United States and is also known as Emancipation Day, Black Independence Day, and Jubilee Day.
Since the establishment of Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983, it was the first federal holiday to be created.
According to former White House staffer Andrea M. O. Neal, who worked under President Joe Biden to advance federal policy and observances for Black History Month, observances provide a complete recognition of American history.
Additionally, according to O Neal, they assist in increasing awareness of issues that communities are facing that could directly affect how the federal government can better assist them.
Communities that at last had a seat at the table [and] were finally recognized for their efforts find this kind of rollback discouraging, according to O Neal.
“The changes implemented from the executive order will make people feel less comfortable at work and cause them to have lower morale,” O Neal said, adding that when presidents and governments decide who is important [and] who is not, that has downstream effects that we may not fully understand yet.
Making resources and policies accessible to marginalized communities is a key component of DEI, according to Troy Blackwell, a former Biden administration employee at the Department of Commerce.
Blackwell and his colleagues established patent and trademark resource libraries at historically Black colleges and universities and Hispanic-serving organizations during his last year at the Department of Commerce.
“To be honest, I’m heartbroken,” Blackwell added. What is occurring is reprehensible, and I believe it is unquestionably an indication of government overreach.
Blackwell, who is Afro-Latino, added, “We commemorate Black History Month aware of the history of enslavement, Jim Crow, and civil rights and what that has done to the fabric of the United States and the contributions of African Americans who have been overlooked for not decades but centuries.” Slaves constructed the actual White House, where the president sits and his staff works.
This year, Trump’s inauguration fell on MLK Day.
Trump acknowledged the holiday’s historical significance in a speech given in the Capitol Rotunda after his swearing-in ceremony. He also addressed the Black and Hispanic voters who supported him last year.
It is Martin Luther King Day today. “To the Black and Hispanic communities, I want to thank you for the tremendous outpouring of love and trust that you have shown me with your vote,” he added. And this will be a big honor for him. However, we will work together to realize his dream in his honor. We’re going to fulfill his dream.”