DOGE Track

Targeting DEI

From its very first day, the Trump Administration has had a profound contempt for the concept of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI). This concept has expanded to an aggressive hostility towards anything deemed too “woke,” including LGBTQ rights (especially the inherent rights of transgender people), protesting against Israel’s occupation of Palestine or climate justice. DOGE has supported these efforts as part of its intrusion into agencies, usually in one of the following ways:

  • Firing staff responsible for civil rights or other DEI-adjacent duties
  • Eliminating content related to DEI topics from federal websites
  • Canceling grants whose descriptions suggest they are DEI-related
  • Canceling grants to entities who are seen as insubordinate to administration oversight of their material (often under the pretext of curbing antisemitism)
  • Removing options from federal forms that reflect diversity. For instance, this might include changing a gender field to only reflect two choices.
  • Curtailing studies or data collection that might illustrate racial or other disparities

Let you think they are just passively implementing administration guidance, DOGE has sometimes bragged about making these changes on their X account. It’s also currently unclear if they were given the directive to eliminate grants based on their descriptions or that guidance was developed internally by DOGE leadership.

Date Event
1/24/25
Source
Representing OPM, James Sullivan coordinates in an email to Department of Energy officials on several DOGE-led initiatives. One messages states “as discussed over the phone, when you compile the list of 69 DEI employees placed on admin leave, please share with Amanda and myself.” Energy officials also send a list of 1394 probationary employees to Amanda Scales, all of whom will be fired.
 Amanda Scales, James Sullivan
1/29/25
Source
The Smithsonian Institution announces it is closing a diversity office and freezing all federal hiring. It is not a federal agency, but most of its funding comes from Congressional appropriaions and two-thirds of its staff are federal workers.
February 2025
2/08/25
Source
The DOGE social media account on X boasts about deleting a page of LGBTQI+ resources that was part of the DHS website.
2/10/25
Source
Multiple employees at HUD receive an email from new DOGE staffer Scott Langmack asking them to list every contract at HUD and whether it is critical to HUD’s mission and/or has DEI components.
2/10/25
Source
A day after a conservative activist flagged the DOGE account on X about it, DOGE posts on its X.com account that it has removed gender identity options from a specific online form at the VA.
2/14/25
Source
After a conservative account complained to Musk on Twitter about gender options on the FAFSA form, it was changed the same day. Reportedly, this change was already on the roadmap, but multiple contractors were called in to rush it as an emergency job.
2/24/25
Source
The head of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is placed on administrative leave and eventually dismissed. She is replaced in the position by Chris Chapman, who is subsequently fired in mass layoffs on March 11th. The agency was leaderless until July 7, when it was added as additional responosibilities for another executive in the Department of Education.
2/27/25
Source
Ethan Shaotran contacts Leland Dudek to inform him that DOGE had identified roughly 3 dozen federal contracts in Maine as “nonessential” and that “we should cancel them” as retribution for the Maine governor publicly countering abuse from the President over transgender athletes. Two of those contracts are for Social Security services in the State.
March 2025
3/18/25
Source
A senior policy strategist at the White House relays a “Stephen request” (meaning Stephen Miller) that “POTUS wants to see more action against universities.” Included in the initial coordination is GSA Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) Commissioner Josh Gruenbaum. He becomes involved with figuring out grants from multiple agencies to cut for both University of Pennsylvania and San Jose State University, because they had allowed trans athletes to participate in sports. This is very much not his area of responsibility at the GSA, but he is on the Task Force to Combat Antisemitism which stripped funding from Columbia Univesity.
 Josh Gruenbaum
3/19/25
Source
During a discussion on how to strip grants from the University of Pennsylvania and San Jose State, GSA FAS Commissioner Josh Gruenbaum sends an email to coordinate grant freezes from DOD, DHS and the EPA. He includes DOGE staffers Kyle Schutt, Adam Hoffman and Kathryn Armstrong Loving as the recipients of these requests.
 Josh Gruenbaum, Adam Hoffman, Kathryn Armstrong Loving, Kyle Schutt
3/21/25
Source
The Trump administration eliminates the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and two ombudsman offices responsible for investigating allegations of abuse from immigrants. This also includes the CRCL program that was characterized as “money laundering” by DOGE staffer Kyle Schutt.
April 2025
4/03/25
Source
Tarak Makecha, a DOGE representative at DOJ is forwarded a list at 6pm of DOJ contracts to terminate for the Acacia Center, a nonprofit in DOGE’s crosshairs that day and a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the DOJ. He coordinates with Josh Gruenbaum at the GSA, who is leading a multi-agency effort to eliminate grants.
 Josh Gruenbaum, Tarak Makecha
4/03/25
Source
Tarak Makecha escalates his demands at 6:25pm that the Acacia contracts must be terminated immediately despite it being after business hours and there not being an actual emergency.
4/18/25
Source
In retribution against Harvard University for rejecting demands from the Trump Administration on April 14th, the National Science Foundation begins rejecting scientific grants, stating they weren’t in alignment with current NSF priorities.
4/30/25
Source
As part of a DOGE-driven effort to find ways to punish Harvard by pulling its grants from the federal govenment, Josh Gruenbaum emails Alexander Simonpour to ask if there are grants that can be revoked by NASA. The next day, Simonpour relayed the request to other NASA staffers and then followed up on May 8th stating that the White House had imposed a 5pm deadline for the information.
 Josh Gruenbaum, Alexander Simonpour
May 2025
5/07/25
Source
A spreadsheet created by Conor Fennessy outlines a reported $26 million in grant reductions for programs in the National Parks, including those identified as “DEI” or studying climate change. It also axes a popular Scientists in Parks program, that provides educational opportunities for early-career scientists and students. A $400K project to make a park accessible for children with disabilities was also targeted because it was “DEI.”
5/07/25
Source
DOGE staff at the Department of Labor terminate more than two dozen grants to increase the representation of women in trades like construction, manufacturing and IT, as well as to combat gender-based violence and discrimination. DOGE later brags about it on its X account. (fuzz: She’s not named, but I am linking Bridget Youngs since she claims she was reviewing grants at DOL)
5/08/25
Source
DOGE staff at NASA, GSA and the White House finalize a list of five NASA grants to be killed and discuss the language for the terminiation letters in a series of email discussions and meetings to 11pm that night. The agency sends a letter to Harvard the following day.
 Josh Gruenbaum, Alexander Simonpour
5/08/25
Source
Jeremy Lichtman emails USDA officials to inform them that GSA (likely Josh Gruenbaum) had directed them to review several agency grants for termination. These terminations were reportedly “awaiting final greenlight from the White House.”
 Josh Gruenbaum, Jeremy Lichtman
5/12/25
Source
In a retaliation against the university coordinated by GSA, grants for Harvard University from DOD, HUD, the Department of Energy and the Department of Education are all terminated. There were 200 grants from DOD alone. The stated reasons varied but included that they no longer effectuated the administration’s priorities or directly accusing Harvard of fostering antisemitism on campus.
June 2025
6/02/25
Source
NIH staff are forced to send all grant proposals through an AI tool that looks for topics banned by the Trump administration. This includes topics like “DEI, transgender, China, or vaccine hesitancy.” Staff are also ordered to check that medical research grants aren’t being awarded to certain schools like Harvard or Columbia which are seen as enemies of Trump.
July 2025
7/06/25
Source
The head of HHS, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., sends a “DEI Whistle-blower Questionnaire” to all staff which is really just a thinly-veiled invitation for federal coworkers to snitch on their colleagues.
7/11/25
Source
The State Department lays off more than 1300 people – many specializing in violent extremism, refugee resettlement and women’s rights – as part of a sweeping reorganization announced by Marco Rubio on April 22. The terminated staff will be placed on a 120-day administrative leave period before formally losing their jobs.
2/02/26
Source
A new report issued by the U.S. Government Accountability Office determines that the Trump Administration’s attempts to dismantle the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) within the Department of Education have cost the federal government more than $28 million. The Department of Education has been blocked from implementing a reduction in force that would reduce the office to 10% of its former size but it has effectively eliminated civil rights enforcement at the agency.
The Goals
Anti-Personnel