The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives appeared to try and avoid Donald Trump’s anti-DEI executive order by switching the job title of its Chief Diversity Officer.
On Tuesday, Trump’s administration ordered federal agencies to place all Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) hires on paid leave pending review and warned authorities not to use ‘coded or imprecise language’ to circumvent the move.
But within a day of the order being announced, eagle-eyed online sleuths noticed the ATF’s Chief Diversity Officer Lisa T. Boykin had a new job title, appearing to have been updated to ‘Senior Executive.’
The ATF did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the claim it tried to go around Trump’s executive order.
The move came after Trump signed an executive order on Monday within hours of being sworn-in that aimed to eradicate all DEI programs within the federal government.
The next day, the White House released a memo to federal agencies ordering them to not only place all DEI hires on paid leave by 5pm Wednesday, but to quickly form plans to fire every one of them.
In a letter first obtained by CBS News, the agencies were ordered to ‘take prompt actions’ against all DEI departments, with all employees warned to report ‘any efforts to disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language’ – or risk ‘adverse consequences.’
Monday’s order was one of a raft of executive orders Trump moved quickly on, also including withdrawing the US from the World Health Organization, ordering all federal employees return to in-person work, and rescinding 78 Biden-era executive orders.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) appeared to try avoiding Donald Trump’s anti-DEI executive order by switching the job title of its Chief Diversity Officer
The day after Trump ordered all DEI hires be placed on leave, the ATF’s Chief Diversity Officer Lisa T. Boykin had a new job role, appearing to be updated to ‘Senior Executive’
It comes after Donald Trump quickly made good on his executive order cutting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies in the federal government by putting all DEI hires on paid leave, warning agencies not to use ‘coded language’ to circumvent the move
Dismantling the federal government’s DEI programs was one of Trump’s top priorities in his first days back in power, which he said in his executive order ‘divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars, and resulted in shameful discrimination.’
Shortly after signing the order, Trump made a statement as he fired the female leader of the US Coast Guard, Admiral Linda Fagan, over concerns about her obsession with DEI policies.
As he placed all DEI hires on leave, Trump also demanded all public DEI focused webpages be taken offline.
The executive order slammed the ‘infiltration’ of DEI programs into the federal government, and cited an executive order signed by Biden on the first day of his presidency that aimed to tackle racial inequalities in government.
Another similar executive order signed by Trump on Tuesday also rolled back affirmative action in federal contracting, reversing a longstanding order first signed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965.
Trump’s anti-DEI executive order directly reverses one signed by President Biden on the first day of his presidency four years ago aimed at tackling racial inequalities in government (pictured signing the order on January 20, 2021)
In a memo issued by the White House on Tuesday night, the Trump administration claimed progress made by the passage of civil rights legislation decades ago had been lost to DEI programs.
‘Today, roughly 60 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, critical and influential institutions of American society, including the Federal Government, major corporations, financial institutions, the medical industry, large commercial airlines, law enforcement agencies, and institutions of higher education have adopted and actively use dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race and sex-based preferences under the guise of so-called ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion,’ the memo read.
Trump’s order argued that DEI programs ‘not only violate the text and spirit of our longstanding Federal civil-rights laws, they also undermine our national unity.’
‘They deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement in favor of an unlawful, corrosive, and pernicious identity-based spoils system,’ the memo continued.
‘The American people have witnessed first-hand the disastrous consequences of illegal, pernicious discrimination that has prioritized how people were born instead of what they were capable of doing.’
Dismantling the federal government’s DEI programs was just one of a wave of executive orders Trump signed in his first hours back in power
Protestors seen outside the Supreme Court in June 2023 after the court struck down affirmative action in college admissions, one of the first major hits to DEI practices under the Biden administration
Alongside dismantling the federal government’s DEI programs, Trump also signed a sweeping order rescinding 78 Biden-era executive orders with one signature.
‘The previous administration has embedded deeply unpopular inflationary, illegal and radical practices within every agency and office of the federal government,’ Trump’s own executive action reads.
‘Orders to open the borders have endangered the American people and dissolved federal, state and local resources that should be used to benefit the American people. Climate extremism has exploded inflation and overburdened businesses with regulation.
‘To commence the policies that will make our Nation united, fair, safe and prosperous again, it is the policy of the United States to restore common sense to the federal government.’
Other orders ranged in topics from national security, migration at the southern border, the use of natural resources and even gender ideology.
One such action was Biden’s order Enabling All Qualified Americans to Serve Their Country in Uniform, which said gender identity is not a bar from service.
Trump also rescinded policies establishing a White House Gender Policy Council and ending Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of Terrorism.
The ‘Initial rescissions of harmful executive orders and actions’ memo included a reversal on sanctions against the International Criminal Court.
Other executive orders pledged to restore free speech and end censorship, and the end of the ‘weaponization’ of the federal government against ‘political opponents.’
