January 27, 2025
ELIMINATING RACE- AND SEX-BASED DISCRIMINATION WITHIN THE ARMED FORCES: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order to restore merit and lethality to America’s fighting force.
- The Executive Order bans the use of discriminatory race- or sex-based preferences by any element of the Armed Forces, the Department of Defense, or the Department of Homeland Security.
- This Order also abolishes any remnant of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) bureaucracy within the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security.
- The Secretary of Defense will task the Department of Defense with conducting an internal review of all instances of race- or sex-based discrimination based on Department of Defense DEI initiatives.
- This Order also requires the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security to review the curriculum at the United States Service Academies and other academic institutions to ensure these institutions eliminate radical DEI and gender ideologies.
ENDING AN ERA OF ASSAULT ON MILITARY DISCIPLINE AND CULTURE: Foreign adversaries are strengthening their fighting forces every day while the United States has deliberately been focused on radical ideology like DEI. The world is watching.
- Prior to harmful changes introduced by the Obama and Biden administrations, the United States military offered equality of opportunity to every American capable of and interested in serving their country. Yet these two administrations exploited the military in favor of identity politics—harming our national defense, undermining the non-political nature of our military, and eroding morale and recruitment.
- Due to this “woke” assault, the Services together logged their lowest recruiting records since 1940 with a 41,000-troop shortfall in 2023.
- Today’s Order moves our military away from this dark period and renews esprit de corps, readiness, and focus. It returns the Pentagon to the warfighter.
- This Order also combats ideologies that seek to divide our Armed Forces by race, sex or other immutable characteristics and thus tear at cohesion and military efficacy.
RESTORING A WARFIGHTING MINDSET: The Armed Forces of the United States exist to preserve our freedom and the American way of life.
- President Trump is committed to a merit-based system of sex-neutral policies and colorblind recruitment, promotion, and retention that will return our military to greatness.
- President Trump vowed to get rid of the “woke” generals who prioritize social experiments over warfighting. He stated in his 2024 reelection campaign that “…[y]ou can’t have a woke military…You need people that want to win. They want to win wars. That’s what their purpose is, to win wars, not to be woke… but we do have great military.”
THE WHITE HOUSE, January 27, 2025.