The Trump administration has been hard at work dismantling offices of “environmental justice” in the federal government.
Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it began implementing Trump’s executive order “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing.” The agency placed on leave 171 employees in DEI and environmental justice offices.
The EPA intends to close the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, The Washington Post reported. Trump appointees at the Justice Department announced they would restructure the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.
Shortly after her confirmation, Attorney General Pam Bondi rescinded any “memoranda, guidance, or similar directive that implement the prior administration’s ‘environmental justice’ agenda.”
“Going forward, the Department will evenhandedly enforce all federal civil and criminal laws, including environmental laws,” Bondi noted.
Why does this matter?
“Environmental justice” refers to the toxic brew of critical race theory and climate alarmism. According to critical race theory, America is institutionally racist against black people and other minorities and in favor of white people. According to climate alarmism, the burning of fossil fuels will bring about Armageddon.
The EPA defines “environmental justice” as ensuring that Americans “are fully protected from disproportionate and adverse human health and environmental effects (including risks) and hazards, including those related to climate change, the cumulative impacts of environmental and other burdens, and the legacy of racism or other structural or systemic barriers” (emphasis added).
Trump entered office promising to unleash American energy and reverse the Biden administration’s promotion of critical race theory and its application in the “diversity, equity, and inclusion” movement. This diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) movement aims to promote some racial minorities, rejecting the colorblind approach of focusing on merit or competence.
While President George H.W. Bush established the EPA’s Office of Environmental Equity — the office that President Bill Clinton would later rename the Office of Environmental Justice — President Joe Biden hypercharged its mission, directing all-of-government efforts on DEI, restrictions on fossil fuels, and a promotion of less reliable forms of energy, like wind and solar.
In doing so, Biden followed the demands of activist groups, many of which staffed and advised his administration.
As I note in my book, “The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government,” Biden tapped climate alarmists for key leadership positions.
Biden picked Michael Regan, a vice president at the Environmental Defense Fund, to head up the EPA. He selected Laura Daniel-Davis, a vice president at the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), to serve at the Department of the Interior. He nominated Tracey Stone-Manning, another NWF staffer who confessed to typing out a letter on behalf of tree-spiking eco-terrorists, to head the Bureau of Land Management.
Gina McCarthy, who headed EPA under President Barack Obama, became president of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) until Biden appointed her national climate adviser.
When Trump moved against the EPA’s environmental justice office, NRDC released a statement condemning the move as a “disgrace.” Who did NRDC enlist to make the statement? None other than Matthew Tejada, who directed the Office of Environmental Justice from 2013 to 2022.
“The Trump EPA is abandoning the communities across our nation that need help the most,” Tejada said. “Shuttering the environmental justice office will mean more toxic contaminants, dangerous air, and unsafe water in communities across the nation that have been most harmed by pollution in the past.”
That conclusion, of course, relies on the assumptions of critical race theory and climate alarmism, however. If America is not institutionally racist but rather a country with civil rights laws that protect citizens of all races from discrimination, the EPA does not need an “environmental justice” office to combat pollution for Americans of specific skin colors.
If the predictions of climate disaster are overblown and based on false assumptions that exaggerate the risks when actual deaths from climate disaster have declined by 99% over the past century, then perhaps the EPA need not invest extra funds in an office of environmental justice. If fossil fuels have gotten substantially cleaner, perhaps the EPA should focus on specific air quality issues, rather than premonitions of global climate doom.
This seems to be at least part of the reasoning behind EPA’s restructure.
“Under President Trump, the EPA will be focused on our core mission to protect human health and the environment, while Powering the Great American Comeback,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement Tuesday. “The previous Administration used DEI and Environmental Justice to advance ideological priorities, distributing billions of dollars to organizations in the name of climate equity. This ends now.”
“We will be good stewards of tax dollars and do everything in our power to deliver clean air, land, and water to every American, regardless of race, religion, background, and creed,” he added.
While pollution affects Americans in different ways, the EPA need not indulge in critical race theory and climate alarmism to effectively combat the real threats Americans face. Rather than addressing supposed institutional racism and fossil fuel-induced disaster, the EPA should focus on its actual mission: protecting Americans from concrete instances of pollution and environmental harms.
Of course, those humdrum concerns don’t require as much federal funding and staff — and that might explain the real reason behind the Left’s freakout over Trump’s move.
Tyler O’Neil is a contributor to The Daily Caller News Foundation, managing editor of The Daily Signal, and the author of two books: “Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center,” and “The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government.”
In a letter issued to all schools and school board members in Maricopa County, Maricopa County School Superintendent Shelli Boggs gave notice that they are legally obligated to conform to an Executive Order from President Donald Trump ending illegal Diversity Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies.
Within the letter, Boggs detailed a series of specific steps that all schools must now take to erase the illegal DEI-based hiring, training, and curricular practices that stand in violation of federal law. According to a press release from Maricopa County Schools, Boggs emphasized that while the Superintendent lacks jurisdiction to directly enforce compliance upon the schools, it strongly encourages that they do so in order to “restore education to its core mission.”
“DEI programs have been used as a tool to divide students, teachers, and parents rather than foster true unity and equal opportunity,” Superintendent Boggs said. “Schools should be places of learning, not ideological indoctrination. Education must return to its fundamental purpose—teaching students the skills they need to succeed—not promoting political agendas that undermine academic excellence.”
The release continued, “One of the most critical responsibilities of this office is the appointment of school board members, who share the authority to set policies within school districts. Under Boggs’ administration, appointees must be committed to meritocracy and academic excellence over politics. Schools should reward hard work and achievement, not lower standards in the name of equity. Education should empower students with knowledge, critical thinking, and opportunity—not divide them by race, gender, or political ideology.”
The Superintendent’s letter also informed school administrators that the county will be monitoring their compliance and has offered resources to assist with the transition away from DEI policies. Superintendent Boggs restated a “commitment to ensuring that all students receive a high-quality, merit-based education free from politically driven programs that promote division.”
In a bipartisan effort between Republican Congressman Eli Crane (AZ) and Democrat Congressman Mike Levin (CA), the “Hire Veterans Act” was reintroduced to the U.S. House of Representatives. If enacted, the bill would employ U.S. military veterans in vacant, critical roles within the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, and Bureau of Land Management.
According to Crane, all three of the federal land management agencies have been suffering from serious staffing shortages that have negatively impacted their operational effectiveness. In particular, both Congressmen cited the U.S. Forest Service facing an ongoing struggle to recruit and train staff in multiple critical roles with what they referred to as “a noticeable gap in the experience and skill sets of candidates, affecting their capacity to address increasing wildfire threats.”
“As a 13-year veteran of the U.S. Navy, I’m all too familiar with the obstacles servicemen and women face when transitioning to civilian life. I’m also well-aware of the challenges our federal land management agencies currently face, particularly in filling vacancies for firefighters, park rangers, and foresters,” said Crane in a press release.
As reported by the New York Times, 3,400 employees from the U.S. Forest Service were terminated by the Trump Administration on Thursday, amounting to approximately 10% of the service’s workforce. Many of the newer employees would have been hired under the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion regimen of the Biden Administration.
“With this bill, Congress has the opportunity to both streamline the employment process for veterans AND better ensure that our natural resources are protected for future generations. I’m grateful to be able to introduce this legislation that serves our veterans while furthering the responsible stewardship of U.S. land,” Crane added.
“Our veterans sacrifice so much for our nation. We have an obligation to ensure that veterans returning to civilian life can get jobs and support their families,” said Rep. Levin. “I’m glad to be partnering with Rep. Crane on our bipartisan bill to expand opportunities for veterans and help connect them to jobs in federal land management agencies. I look forward to working with my colleagues to advance this important legislation.”
According to a press release from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which manages the Forest Service, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins issued a memorandum to rescind all Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) programs and celebrations. Instead, the USDA will reprioritize unity, equality, meritocracy, and color-blind policies.
Rollins said in her opening remarks at the USDA, “We will neither commemorate nor celebrate our immutable characteristics, neither among ourselves nor among Americans at large. We will instead celebrate the things that make us American: merit, faith, and liberty first among them. All Americans deserve equal dignity, and at this Department they will receive it. On this precipice of the 250th anniversary of our Revolution, we will rededicate ourselves to ‘the proposition that all men are created equal.’”
Parents within the Deer Valley Unified School District (DVUSD) raised concerns over compliance with the Trump administration’s directive to end Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).
Last Friday — Valentine’s Day — the U.S. Department of Education (ED) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) sent a letter to the Arizona Department of Education (AZED), along with the departments of education in the remaining 49 states, ordering an end to DEI in all public schools, from K-12 to higher education. The deadline for compliance is Feb. 28, 2025.
Just 11 days left now. As good as they may sound, MTSS and Portrait of a Graduate are problematic and often incorporate DEI.
The Deer Valley Unified 2024-2025 handbook is not available, so one can only assume that's one of the more public documents that needs necessary changes… https://t.co/Qi63QxU29Wpic.twitter.com/sIhAVk6K4b
Additionally, ED opened an OCR complaint line to report unlawful discrimination within public schools based on its letter. ED characterized DEI as unlawful discrimination.
“Educational institutions have toxically indoctrinated students with the false premise that the United States is built upon ‘systemic and structural racism’ and advanced discriminatory policies and practices. Proponents of these discriminatory practices have attempted to further justify them—particularly during the last four years—under the banner of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ (‘DEI’), smuggling racial stereotypes and explicit race-consciousness into everyday training, programming, and discipline,” stated ED. “But under any banner, discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin is, has been, and will continue to be illegal.”
Arizona Women of Action (AWA) expressed concerns over DVUSD’s Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) and Portrait of a Graduate.
“As good as they may sound, MTSS and Portrait of a Graduate are problematic and often incorporate DEI,” stated AWA.
In an X post over the weekend, DVUSD candidate Tiffany Hawkins said she had yet to hear from district leadership about their plan to address the DEI eradication directive. Their next board meeting is next Tuesday.
Deer Valley District has 14 days to comply with removing DEI ordered by US dept of ed. pic.twitter.com/vEV6gtrqFq
MTSS and Portrait of a Graduate are two subcomponents within the DVUSD Strategic Plan for 2023-2028’s “Excellence in Student Learning” component.
The MTSS component relies in part on a “campus equity flowchart,” which is no longer available.
Paradise Valley Unified School District (PVUSD) governing board member Sandra Christensen indicated parental concern over DEI eradication compliance in other districts as well.
“We all do [need to comply],” said Christensen. “Districts need to address this.”
DEI ideology hasn’t been stripped immediately from DVUSD’s website — the ideology remains.
The district’s Gifted Services parent portal page includes a section on “Culturally Fair and Inclusive Practices in Serving Gifted Populations” which illustrates its claims of DEI using the oft-employed “Reality-Equality-Equity-Justice” cartoon depicting fans attempting to watch a sports game from different vantage points over a fence.
“The identification and dismantling of barriers must be included as part of the definition of equity since the road to identification for gifted services contains several barriers for [Culturally, Linguistically, and Economically Diverse,] CLED students,” stated the webpage. “Gifted characteristics manifest themselves differently in CLED students — some may even appear as negative characteristics[….] Various gaps (which include cultural perception, beliefs, opportunity, etc.) of CLED students and teacher perceptions or stereotypes of giftedness.”
The district claimed barriers included the exclusion of CLED parents due to their ignorance of the gifted services program, educators’ inability to recognize gifted characteristics in CLED students, CLED parents’ reticence to access gift services due to an inability to complete referral forms, and inherent bias against CLED students within assessments or use of national norms.
The Gifted Parent Portal also included Social and Emotional Learning resources.
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“Drain the swamp” is fun to say, and it makes for a great slogan for an election campaign. But too often, that’s where it stops. How many times have you heard politician after politician use such a phrase only to be elected and leave the swamp intact—or make it murkier? But now, it’s 2025. President Trump is back in office, and he is setting a standard of excellence when it comes to draining the swamp—especially on some key issues. And Scottsdale’s newly elected city council is following his lead.
President Trump unleashed a torrent of Executive Orders that have unleashed fossil fuel production in America, rolled back the Green New Deal climate cult fantasy, ended DEI and other race-based hiring and employment practices, and is taking a sledgehammer to the administrative state by letting Elon Musk identify and eliminate billions in wasteful spending.
As we have watched the Trump team move at warp speed to deliver on their campaign promises, we were curious to see if any other state or local governments would follow Trump’s lead at plowing ahead with DOGE-style meaningful reform. Here in Arizona one city has: Scottsdale…
