President-elect Donald Trump said at his Make America Great Again rally on Sunday that he will end President Joe Biden’s “diversity, equity, and inclusion mandates” in favor of a merit-based system.
Trump detailed his plans at the Capitol One Arena in Washington, DC, after vowing to sign a slew of executive orders on day one that would reverse policies of the Biden administration.
“Every radical and foolish Executive Order of the Biden administration will be repealed within hours of when I take the oath of office. Oh, you’re gonna have a lot of fun watching television tomorrow,” Trump said.
He then zoned in on Biden’s “diversity equity and inclusion mandate.”
“But we’re going to stop the destructive and divisive Diversity Equity and Inclusion mandates all across government and private sector and return our country to the merit system,” Trump declared.
“You know, the Supreme Court ruled that the United States is allowed to go by the merit system, which is what made us great in the first place,” he added. “That was a big, big ruling that a lot of people don’t even know about, but that was a big, tremendous ruling.”
Trump did not specify which ruling he was referring to, but it could be the Court’s decision in 2023 to strike down affirmative action in college admissions.
“And you’re focusing on character, competence, qualifications in all hiring decisions,” Trump said. “Now, you’re allowed to go by competence, ability, and genius. You don’t have to hire somebody to send up one of his rocket ships that doesn’t know anything about what’s happening.”
Trump first vowed to eliminate DEI programs across the federal government in 2023 after the court’s decision on affirmative action. His mandate election has led to a self-purge of DEI in the private sector and sent the Pentagon into what sources called “absolute disarray” as he aims to fire military leaders who pushed DEI, as Breitbart News Pentagon Correspondent Kristina Wong reported.
