This week, President Trump has banned diversity, equity and inclusion programming in the federal government, punished former aides by taking away their security detail and celebrated the release of hundreds of Jan. 6, 2021, rioters and planners.The New York Times journalists Michael Barbaro, Maggie Haberman, Zolan Kanno-Youngs and David E. Sanger try to make sense of it all.Guests: Maggie Haberman, a senior political correspondent for The New York Times.Zolan Kanno-Youngs, a White House correspondent for The New York Times.David E. Sanger, a White House and National Security Correspondent for The New York Times.Background reading: Mr. Trump’s D.E.I. order creates “fear and confusion” among corporate leaders.The president revoked the security detail for Mike Pompeo and others despite threats from Iran.Mr. Trump granted sweeping clemency to all Jan. 6 rioters.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. Photo: Doug Mills/The New York Times Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Full Episode
From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. Over the past 48 hours, President Trump banned DEI programming in the federal government, punished three former aides by taking away their security detail, and celebrated the release of hundreds of January 6th rioters and planners —
Today, I talked through all of that with three of my Times colleagues, White House reporters Maggie Haberman, Zolan Kano-Youngs, and David Sanger. It's Friday, January 24th. Friends, welcome back to The Roundtable. Maggie, Zolan, David, thank you for being here.
Thanks, Michael. Thanks.
Thank you. Last time the three of you were on the show, your locations were incredibly exotic. Mar-a-Lago, Italy... Where were you, Maggie? Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C. Today we join you from two boring studios on the East Coast. We are taping this on Thursday afternoon at the end of week one of the Trump presidency, and what a week it has been.
I don't think it's a stretch to say that in record time President Trump has begun to remake both the federal government and arguably American society in his image in just a few days. And I want to start with late-breaking policy that we haven't covered on the show from the White House, and that is around DEI, diversity, equity, and inclusion.
What exactly, Zolan, had the policy been, and what has Trump just changed it to?
So basically throughout the federal government, all the different cabinet agencies, you had these different programs that were focused on increasing diversity. In the previous administration's mind, it was programs that would basically be addressing decades of systemic inequalities and racism.
And it's worth also saying this DEI has ramped up recently, but it's not necessarily new, came out of legislation in the 60s, what have you. Trump comes into office and one of his executive orders essentially calls this immoral and saying that under the guise of diversity, that actually this is promoting inequality, right?
Just in recent days, his administration has taken a number of actions, right? So that includes a directive to put those that are working and leading DEI initiatives on paid leave. It also includes sending out memos to each agency, basically asking different federal employees to report any indication or any work that may be in progress that is in line with DEI initiatives.
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