California AG: Trump is ‘misleading’ public on the purpose of DEI initiatives

California Attorney General Rob Bonta is joining 12 other AGs across the country in condemning President Donald Trump’s push against initiatives promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion.

In a joint statement issued on Friday, the coalition of AGs called the president’s recent executive orders “unnecessary and disingenuous.”

“These orders have nothing to do with combatting discrimination,” the statement reads in part. “Instead, the [Trump] administration is targeting lawful policies and programs that are beneficial to all Americans. These policies and programs are not only consistent with state and federal anti-discrimination laws, they foster environments where everyone has an opportunity to succeed. That is the opposite of discrimination.”

The statement was made with the AGs from Illinois, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, and Washington.

In the first 12 days of his second administration, Trump has issued multiple executive orders toward dismantling previously set-up DEI initiatives.

On Jan. 20, his first day back in office, Trump signed an order ending DEI programs across the U.S. government, as well as an end to training and consulting programs given to private companies by federal contractors.

The push to end such programs has been supported by many Republicans, who maintain that DEI hiring programs uplift women, minority ethnic groups and the LGBT+ community in exchange for unfairly limiting opportunities for straight, white men. The opposition movement says hiring practices should be solely merit-based.

“The Biden Administration forced illegal and immoral discrimination programs, going by the name “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI), into virtually all aspects of the Federal Government, in areas ranging from airline safety to the military,” the order issued on Jan. 20 reads in part.

Bonta, alongside the 12 other AGs, say that DEI programs are aimed at preventing discrimination, as well as promoting “respect, understanding, and the celebration of diverse perspectives.” The statement says that diversity in backgrounds brings value to a work or educational setting.

Part of Friday’s statement took issue with a news conference Trump participated in on Thursday, in which the president alluded to his belief that DEI programs used by the Federal Aviation Administration may have contributed to the tragic mid-air collision in Washington DC that killed 67 people.

During that news conference, Trump called the deadly collision between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines commercial jet a “tragedy of terrible proportions.” Once the scripted portion of his statements were over, his somber tone turned to a surreal rant against his two presidential predecessors, Joe Biden and Barack Obama.

Trump focused on the FAA’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility, or DEIA, programs, which sought out to hire individuals with “severe disabilities,” both intellectual and physical.

Such a program did exist, as pointed out by reporting from CNN on Thursday. The program was spelled out in a now-scrubbed portion of the FAA’s website, where it existed between at least 2013 until this week — including during Trump’s first term in the White House from 2017 to 2021.

“Individuals with targeted or ‘severe’ disabilities are the most under-represented segment of the Federal workforce,” a now-archived portion of the FAA’s website reads. “The People with Disabilities Program (PWD) ensures that people with disabilities have equal Federal employment opportunities. The FAA actively recruits, hires, promotes, retains, develops and advances people with disabilities.”

2019 and 2020 descriptions of the programs were clear that those hired by the FAA as part of DEIA-related programs would only work in positions that they were physically capable of performing at a high level, according to CNN.

“The candidates in this program will receive the same rigorous consideration in terms of aptitude, medical and security qualifications as those individuals considered for a standard public opening for air traffic controller jobs,” the 2019 description reads in part.

While Trump didn’t make a direct connection from these programs to Wednesday’s tragedy, he did imply that they could have played a part. When asked by a reporter how Trump could be sure that there was a chance DEI could bear some blame, he responded that it was because he has “common sense.”

In Friday’s statement, Bonta and the other AGs said Trump presented “baseless and offensive claims” during that news conference.

“His baseless and offensive claims that these initiatives somehow contributed to the tragic plane crash this week are an insult to those who are grieving and the individuals serving in the military and air traffic control,” the statement reads in part.

On Thursday, Trump signed a memorandum ending all DEI and DEIA initiatives for the FAA.