Leaked internal documents from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency show how the team intends to carry out President Donald Trump’s purge of DEI initiatives from the federal government—and reveal who is next on the chopping block.
The records, obtained by The Washington Post, offer a step-by-step game plan in three phases for the White House to rid the federal government of offices and employees who work on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Phase 1 outlines moves on Trump’s first day to initiate the purge, Phase 2 implements firings and spending cuts over the next 30 days, and Phase 3 broadens the scale of the effort over the ensuing six months.
With Phase 2 of the plan set to conclude on Wednesday, however, the DOGE team is poised to move beyond expelling employees and offices explicitly dedicated to DEI. Phase 3 targets non-DEI employees and offices enshrined by law that work to uphold equal rights across what DOGE described as “corrupted branches” of government, according to the Post.
Acknowledging the legal challenges with doing so, the plan—which was last updated in mid-January—reads, “We are exploring options for this.”
Actions on Trump’s first day in office, Jan. 20, made up the entirety of Phase 1 of DOGE’s plan—and the president followed the playbook to a T.
Trump issued the two executive orders Musk’s team had prescribed that rescinded former President Joe Biden’s orders on DEI, dissolving two key councils on race and gender.
The plan also advised placing DEI employees on administrative leave. The Office of Personnel Management used an email template that was almost a perfect match for one option drafted by DOGE.
The new administration also followed DOGE’s recommendations to remove DEI initiatives from government websites.
Phase 2 of the plan—which is currently underway and spans days two to 30 of the new term—centered on further firings and canceling DEI-related funding.
This phase targets employees at “identified offices” within departments such as Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, and Energy that perform DEI work.
This part of the purge appears to be in full swing, especially at the Department of Education, where DOGE announced this week that it had ended 29 DEI training grants totaling $101 million. Nearly 100 employees at the agency have been placed on leave.
Phase 3, which kicks off later this month and runs until July, seeks to expand the firings to all employees with any DEI ties.
“There are DEI-focused personnel embedded throughout divisions that do not have any identifying DEI criteria in their name,” one document states, per the Post. “Phase 2/3 will be focused on identifying these employees and putting them on administrative leave.”
Trump’s administration seems to be pursuing a way around the problem of eliminating DEI from offices mandated by law.
On Tuesday, the president signed an executive order establishing DOGE’s authority to oversee the removal of employees “performing functions not mandated by statute.”
A White House spokesperson confirmed to the Post that the president fully supports DOGE’s ongoing work.
“The White House’s position is that we are ridding the federal government of DEI, full stop,” the spokesperson said Friday. “DOGE is there as a collaborator ensuring that we get rid of waste, fraud, and abuse. And if DEI is waste, fraud, and abuse, it’s gone.”
