Trump signs Executive Order 14151 eliminating all federal DEI and DEIA programs on day one

President Trump signed Executive Order 14151 within hours of his inauguration, directing every federal agency to terminate its diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility offices, programs, training, and grant requirements within 60 days. The order covered all executive branch departments, including the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and every grant-making scientific agency. It instructed agencies to remove DEI-related language from government websites, end DEI training contracts, and cancel grants or cooperative agreements with DEI components. Because the federal government funds roughly half of all academic research in the United States through grants and contracts, the order immediately created legal uncertainty for universities about which programs could trigger enforcement. Agency general counsels began reviewing thousands of active grants, and universities with large federal research portfolios started auditing their own programs before any federal investigator arrived.