President Donald Trump signed a memorandum on Monday eliminating Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) as a formal consideration in Foreign Service hiring, promotions, and recruitment, framing the move as a return to merit-based employment in federal agencies.
The memorandum directs the Secretary of State to remove DEIA-related language from promotion and tenure evaluations within the U.S. Foreign Service. It further mandates that the government no longer consider race, sex, religion, or national origin in personnel decisions, calling such factors part of a “discriminatory equity ideology” embedded during the Biden administration (White House, March 18, 2025).
“Foreign policy positions should be filled by the most qualified individuals, not by discriminatory quotas or ideological requirements,” the memorandum states.
The Biden administration had previously implemented a Five-Year DEIA Strategic Plan within the State Department, including department-wide climate surveys and targeted recruitment efforts aimed at increasing representation among so-called “underrepresented groups.” Former Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley said in 2023 that promotion eligibility was tied to an employee’s contributions to DEIA goals (White House, March 18, 2025).
President Trump’s actions are part of a broader campaign to dismantle DEI initiatives across the federal government. In his first week back in office, Trump signed executive orders ending all DEI programming and reinstating merit-based hiring standards. “We will terminate every diversity, equity, and inclusion program across the entire federal government,” Trump said, according to the memorandum.
Critics argue the policy shift could reverse progress in federal workforce diversity and silence efforts to address systemic barriers.
At the National Science Foundation (NSF), staff are currently reviewing thousands of federally funded science research projects for flagged DEI-related language, The Washington Post reported. Internal documents and sources revealed that the flagged keywords prompting reviews include: advocacy, antiracist, barrier, biases, cultural relevance, disability, diverse backgrounds, diversity, diversified, ethnicity, excluded, exclusion, equity, female, gender, hate speech, historically, implicit bias, inclusion, inclusive, inequities, institutional, intersectional, male-dominated, marginalized, minority, multicultural, oppression, polarization, racially, segregation, socioeconomic, systemic, trauma, underrepresented, underserved, victims, and women (The Washington Post, March 18, 2025).
Two NSF employees, who spoke to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity, confirmed that staff are combing through project summaries using the flagged terms list, raising concerns among scientists about censorship and political interference in research.
The administration has defended the changes as a corrective measure to restore objectivity and fairness.
The long-term implications of these changes remain uncertain, but civil rights groups and career diplomats warn that removing DEI could hinder the State Department’s ability to reflect and engage with an increasingly diverse global landscape.
