The New York Times [unpaywalled]: The Trump administration on Tuesday ordered that officials overseeing diversity, equity and inclusion efforts across federal agencies be placed on leave and to take steps to close their offices by Wednesday evening. In a memo from the Office of Personnel Management, the heads of departments and agencies were ordered to purge such officials by placing all D.E.I. staff on paid administrative leave, effective immediately, by 5 p.m. Wednesday, and to make plans for staff reductions by the end of the day on Jan. 31. The memo also directed agencies to take down any language or advertisements about their D.E.I. initiatives and to withdraw any pending documents or directives that would undermine the new orders. It also ordered agency heads to inform D.E.I. officials that their offices would be closed and that employees would be questioned about whether there were any remaining efforts that remained “in disguise” by using coded or imprecise language. The directive was a swift attempt to carry out elements of President Trump’s Day 1 executive order dismantling federal diversity efforts. In a new executive order on Tuesday, Mr. Trump encouraged the private sector to follow the federal government’s lead and “end illegal D.E.I. discrimination and preferences and comply with all federal civil-rights laws.” His order also directed agencies to investigate the compliance of corporations and foundations with those laws…

• See also Washington Post: “DOGE is reviewing a 19-page report from the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, a right-wing civil rights nonprofit, that identified more than $120 billion annually in what it said was “diversity, equity and inclusion” spending, according to two people familiar with the conversations and a copy of the report that was obtained by The Washington Post…”
• See also The Hill – President Trump on Tuesday issued an executive order directing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to “return to non-discriminatory, merit-based hiring” and eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. “I hereby order the Secretary of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administrator to immediately return to non-discriminatory, merit-based hiring, as required by law,” the directive read…”