An important part of Donald Trump’s 2024 election platform was his pledge to end diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies in the US government, a vow that he has been making good on since the beginning of his second presidential term. Using national polling results, Doug Rice, Jesse Rhodes, Tatishe Nteta, and Adam Eichen look at how Americans really feel about DEI policies, finding that a plurality (about 45 percent) opposes ending federal DEI policies in education, employment, and housing. They also find that six in ten Americans support DEI training for teachers, police officers, members of the US military, public and private employees, and medical professionals.

On the campaign trail during the 2024 presidential election, Donald Trump vowed to end diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies, declaring his intention to “instruct the Department of Justice to make clear that any such discrimination is completely and totally illegal, and to investigate the unlawful domination and discrimination and civil right abuses carried out by the Biden administration.” Trump also stated that he would immediately terminate all staffers hired to implement these policies, and eliminate all offices and initiatives connected to DEI.  

Trump’s attack on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies

In the first 100 days of his administration, Trump made good on this campaign promise, signing several executive orders abolishing DEI policies, programs, positions, and mandates in the federal government and the US military. Trump also directed the Department of Justice to investigate DEI policies, programs, and mandates in the private sector for violations of the nation’s civil rights laws and suggested that the nation’s colleges and universities would lose their federal funding and accreditation if they did not end their DEI efforts.

Partly in response to Trump’s war on DEI, major private companies, including Target, Google, Meta, Amazon, and Goldman Sachs, scaled back or ended the DEI policies they put in place following the murder of George Floyd in 2020. Numerous states, including Missouri, Georgia, North Carolina, Iowa, Michigan, and California, also began shuttering their DEI initiatives.  Even progressive groups and prominent members of the Democratic Party have now expressed opposition to DEI programs.

Yet while elected officials, universities, the private sector, and some progressives have raced to abandon DEI, it is unclear whether ordinary Americans want DEI efforts to end. In fact, there are indications that many Americans value DEI and oppose attempts to ban these policies. For example, in response to Target’s decision to end its DEI policies, foot traffic in Target stores declined by eight percent and sales fell three percent relative to 2024. Conversely, Costco, which rejected a shareholder proposal to end its company’s DEI policies, has experienced a growth in both foot and web traffic since this decision.

“Office of Diversity Equity and Inclusion” (CC BY 2.0) by Tony Webster

The results of our University of Massachusetts national polls over the past year provide even more evidence that, far from opposing DEI policies, a majority of Americans endorse DEI and want efforts by governments and employers to promote inter-racial empathy and understanding to continue. 

How do Americans feel about DEI policies?

Do ordinary Americans want federal DEI policies in education, employment, and housing to end? We put this question to the test as we asked our respondents in October 2024 and again in April of this year to indicate their support or opposition to ending these federal measures. From October (42 percent) to April 2025 (45 percent) we find a slight increase in opposition to ending these policies and a corresponding decrease in support for ending them (from 36 percent to 35 percent). The only groups with majority support for ending federal DEI policies are President Trump’s most loyal constituencies: Republicans (68 percent), conservatives (66 percent), and Trump voters (69 percent).

We also asked our respondents in January 2024 and April 2025 whether professions such as teachers, police officers, members of the US military, public and private employees, and medical professionals should or should not receive diversity, equity, and inclusion training at their workplaces. In 2024, we found that about seven in ten Americans supported DEI training for these professions. Strikingly, support for DEI training was widespread, with clear majorities of men, women, people of color, whites, young, middle-aged, and older Americans expressing support for this training. We even found relatively strong support among Republicans, with a majority supporting DEI training for police officers (50 percent) and four in ten supporting training for medical professionals, teachers, the military, and public employees.

Support for DEI continues despite Trump’s attack

Has Trump’s attack on DEI shifted this support? Only marginally. Again, across demographic groups, we continue to find strong majority support for DEI training of professionals. In April 2025, about six in ten Americans agreed that each of these professions should receive DEI training. The fall in support is, unsurprisingly, concentrated among Republicans. Even still, more than one-third of Republicans continue to favor DEI training for these professions. 

Thus, while many elites, including Democratic elected officials and progressive activists, suggest abandoning DEI trainings, public opinion largely supports them.  

In his speech to the joint session of Congress on 4 March, President Donald Trump touted his executive orders that ended DEI programs, policies, and mandates, stating that, “We’ve ended the tyranny of so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion policies all across the entire federal government and, indeed, the private sector and our military. And our country will be woke no longer.” Implicit in this declaration is the assumption that DEI programs are deeply unpopular among the public. Our results suggest otherwise. A plurality of Americans opposes ending federal DEI policies in education, housing, and employment, and strong majorities favor DEI training across a variety of professions in the public and private sectors. Trump, prominent American corporations, and even some Democrats are out of step with the majority of Americans who remain committed to the value of these policies. 

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• Note: This article gives the views of the author, and not the position of USAPP – American Politics and Policy, nor the London School of Economics.