President Trump’s effort to remove DEI preferences and restore sex-based federal policy now reaches federal agencies, contractors, passports, women’s sports, and the military – with major court battles still unfolding.
Update – June 3, 2026
Since this commentary was first published, President Donald Trump’s initial actions have developed into a broader federal policy shift.
President Trump signed subsequent orders protecting women’s sports and restricting federal support for certain medical interventions for minors. The Department of Health and Human Services later issued sex-based definitions for federal policy. The State Department now issues passports only with an M or F marker matching the applicant’s biological sex at birth, a policy the Supreme Court allowed to remain in effect while litigation continues.
The administration has also expanded its DEI rollback through additional action addressing discriminatory practices by federal contractors. Meanwhile, in United States v. Skrmetti, the Supreme Court upheld Tennessee’s restriction on certain medical treatments for minors.
Legal battles remain, but the direction is clear: The administration has moved beyond an initial course correction and into a broader effort to restore biological truth, equal treatment, and merit-based opportunity in federal policy.
Original: Among President Donald Trump’s numerous Day One executive orders were several actions that will go a long way towards dismantling woke policies in the federal government.
The first order, titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” undoes the prior administration’s embrace of the radical belief that there are multiple genders and that if someone identifies as a different gender, the federal government must affirm and accommodate it.
Instead, the new EO states: “It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female. These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”
The term “sex” is defined as “an individual’s immutable biological classification as either male or female” and does not include the concept of “gender identity.”
Implementation of the order falls to federal agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services. Since this commentary was first published, HHS has issued guidance establishing sex-based definitions for federal policy and directing its agencies to align their language and programs with those definitions.
Second, the order will be applied to “government-issued identification documents, including passports, visas, and Global Entry cards,” with the document requiring the identity of the holder’s sex as male or female at birth. The policy will end Americans’ ability to change their sex on federal documents in the future.
Third, the Trump-signed executive action mandates that “intimate spaces designated for women, girls, or females (or for men, boys, or males) are designated by sex and not identity.” In other words, federal agencies, federally run facilities, and or federally funded schools and universities must bar biological men and boys from women’s and girl’s spaces (and vice versa), including bathrooms, locker rooms, dormitories, and prisons.
Conservatives hailed the move as a common-sense return to normalcy. As Jay Richards, director of Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family at The Heritage Foundation, wrote,
“Given this basic truth, the madness of gender ideology collapses. This executive order seeks to expunge the federal promotion of gender ideology that Biden called for on his first day in office. It protects private spaces, including federal prisons, for women. And it calls for an end to federal funding of gender ‘transition’ procedures for federal prison inmates.”
At the time this commentary was first published, two major questions remained: whether biological boys and men could compete in girls’ and women’s sports and how the administration would address so-called “gender-affirming care” for minors. President Trump subsequently addressed both issues through additional executive actions, as explained in the update above.
A second Trump order signed on Monday eliminates all Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs and initiatives from the federal government. It reads:
“Yet 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’ (DEI) or ‘diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility’ (DEIA) that can violate the civil-rights laws of this Nation.”
The order also revokes a 1965 executive order put in place by President Lyndon Johnson that imposed affirmative-action requirements on federal contractors. The administration has since expanded its effort to address discriminatory DEI practices among covered federal contractors and subcontractors. A related separate order specifically restores merit-based hiring at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), ending DEI recruiting and hiring practices implemented during the Biden administration.
The reaction within government agencies was swift, with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) notifying agency heads to close all DEI offices within two days and placing workers in the roles on paid leave.
Trump’s elimination of DEI is also likely to impact the nation’s Armed Forces. Under the Biden administration, DEI and other woke policies had been incorporated into not just the Department of Defense (DoD) bureaucracy but also the military services, which, according to conservative critics and military experts, has weakened force readiness and left a significantly negative effect on the morale of servicemembers and recruiting goals.
On Jan. 27, 2025, President Trump signed additional executive actions aimed at removing DEI programs from the Armed Forces and prioritizing military readiness, discipline, and effectiveness.
Trump’s orders are not a panacea for the woke revolution in government. One weakness with both the EO regarding gender and related DEI efforts is that a future president could rescind the orders with his own EOs. To block the possibility of future reversals, the Trump administration and conservatives will need to work with Congress to try to pass legislation that make the new policies permanent.
A second challenge is that the administration’s sex-based policies will continue to face litigation. Although the Supreme Court has since upheld Tennessee’s restriction on certain medical interventions for minors, major legal questions remain unresolved, including disputes involving women’s sports and the scope of federal authority. The administration’s policies may be rooted in biological reality and common sense, but their precise reach will continue to be tested in the courts.
The administration’s DEI actions may rest on stronger legal footing in some contexts, particularly after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which struck down race-conscious admissions practices. However, the precise reach of each policy will depend on its wording, implementation, and the courts.
At their core, these actions reflect truths grounded in a biblical worldview.
Scripture teaches that God created mankind male and female:
“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”
— Genesis 1:27
The biblical worldview also affirms that God’s created order is good. Men and women possess equal dignity and value in His eyes, even as biological differences remain real and meaningful.
Scripture likewise rejects favoritism. Human worth is not determined by race, sex, status, or social power. Galatians 3:28 reminds believers that all who belong to Christ share equal standing before God. True unity does not come from dividing people into competing identity groups. It comes from recognizing the dignity of every person while refusing to abandon truth.
Christians should respond with both courage and compassion. We must treat every person with grace while defending biological reality, equal treatment under the law, and the principle that Americans should be judged by their character, conduct, and merit – not reduced to ideological categories.
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