Explaining the Right is a weekly series that looks at what the right wing is currently obsessing over, how it influences politics—and why you need to know.
Donald Trump spent his first week in office using the power of the presidency to attack decades of actions to promote diversity.
Trump issued executive orders rolling back desegregation orders, instructing government offices that promote diversity to be shuttered, and laying off workers tasked with promoting inclusion. He even threatened federal employees, ordering them to snitch on each other to expose any pro-diversity positions that might have flown under the radar.
Trump, of course, has a long history of racism, and the conservative movement and Republican Party he leads has frequently voiced opposition to social progress. But the executive actions in his second administration are occurring with a level of vigor much higher than in his first term.
So what happened?
In 2020, the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police set off a series of protests against racial injustice throughout the United States and the world. While such protests have always occurred, the uprising of 2020 happened at the height of the coronavirus pandemic—and while Trump was in the White House, pursuing a racist agenda that included praising Nazis and other right-wing extremists.
Protesters walk in front of The Trump International Hotel in New York City following the police murder of George Floyd in 2020.
Conservatives, still reeling from significant advances from Barack Obama’s presidency, chose to strike back by more forcefully opposing pro-diversity efforts in government, academia, and business.
Activists like Christopher Rufo rallied conservatives to attack diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and falsely claimed that the academic “critical race theory,” which discusses systemic racism, was being taught at all school levels rather than just in college.
At the same time, conservative media—led by outlets like Fox News—attacked any and all advances toward racial and gender equity as “woke,” subverting the meaning of the term originally coined by Black activists to promote racial awareness. Suddenly, according to Fox, everything under the sun was “woke.”
When M&M’s added a female character to its advertising, Fox’s Harris Faulkner complained that the brand was “back to pushing woke politics, the company now introducing a new progressive pack of chocolates: women M&M’s.”
Conservative pundit Buck Sexton appeared on Fox to argue that lingerie company Victoria’s Secret’s choice to get rid of its “angels” concept was a sinister plot to “go a little bit woke.”
Similarly, leading Republicans like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared that his state was at war with “woke.” DeSantis ordered the state to only use red, white, and blue lights on bridges—prohibiting lights that celebrate events like Pride Month or Juneteenth. He even went on the attack against one of the state’s biggest and most beloved companies, Disney, because diversified some of its content.
Trump was involved in all of this by promoting attacks on diversity from within the presidency, including falsely labeling the racial justice protests as being purely violent. Trump is also a habitual consumer of Fox News and the network has a demonstrated ability to influence his world view, as can be seen by the slew of Fox talking heads now populating his administration.
While Trump was adopting this posture, many of the former members of his administration and their ideological allies were concocting Project 2025, which is extremely focused on rolling back many civil rights gains and other advances—like same-sex marriage—that have occurred in the ensuing decades.
Now in his second term, Trump has installed Project 2025 architects in his Cabinet and is already implementing their wish list.
Trump began his political career riding a wave of racist right-wing anger after the United States elected its first Black president. And now, he and his party have the civil rights movement squarely in their crosshairs.
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