William Jacobson, president and director of the Legal Insurrection Foundation, is warning conservatives to avoid being “complacent” with President Donald Trump’s fight against DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) policies within the federal government, noting how entities on the left are not easily going to “give up” the fight.
Within the first week of his administration, Trump signed an executive order terminating DEI policies in federal contracting, hiring, and spending, instead prioritizing merit-based hiring and performance evaluations.
The Trump administration believes that DEI initiatives “create and amplify prejudicial hostility and exacerbates interpersonal conflict” instead of “reducing bias and promoting inclusion,” a fact sheet from the White House explains.
Despite Trump’s executive actions taken against such initiatives, Jacobson, who founded Legal Insurrection in 2008 and also works as a professor at Cornell Law School, warned that the president’s actions taken against DEI have motivated the left to “dig in” and “fight.”
“[Legal Insurrection] is very familiar with how deeply embedded these [DEI and Critical Race Theory] ideologies are throughout the education system, including K-12 nowadays. What we’re trying to call people’s attention to is what Trump is doing with his executive orders is great, it’s fine and it’s going to be impactful, particularly to the extent it cuts off the flow of federal money to these programs, but nobody should kid themselves. This is not going away,” Jacobson said on Thursday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
Noting how Trump’s executive actions are being challenged through the courts, Jacobson said the left is “not going to give up” on DEI initiatives, especially in academia, noting how the left, for nearly two decades, has “strategically taken over” education and “deeply” embedded DEI and CRT in curriculums.
“They’re already bringing lawsuits. They’re already organizing. They are not going to give up what, for most of academia, has become its reason to be, which is diversity, equity and inclusion. It’s really got a quasi religious feeling to it on the campuses,” Jaconson explained.
“While we’re all in favor of cutting off the flow of money, this is all good, people should not get complacent. People should not think that just because Trump signed a half dozen executive orders, this stuff is going away,” Jacobson added.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “William Jacobson” by Cornell Law School.
