Leakers Declare War on Trump
Trump’s attack on DEI triggers resistance, including against Elon Musk
In the past 24 hours, over two dozen people from across the federal government leaked to me various internal directives and memos killing their agencies’ DEI programs. One angry official even sent me Elon Musk’s new official White House email address (I verified the address, belonging to the Executive Office of the President, by sending an email which didn’t bounce back.)
In fact, I've gotten more leaked documents in the past day than I’ve gotten on any other day ever — and leaks for me were already so commonplace that someone even made a rap about it.
Government workers are angry, or some in the rank-and-file, anyway. The documents tell a story of both resistance (by those who leaked them) and obedience (by those who wrote them).
The leaks are tantamount to a declaration of war against the president and his agenda, which at first glance seems like an affirmation of Trump’s claims about the existence of a bureaucratic “deep state.” But this office uprising is more complicated, as a closer look at the documents reveals.
The signatories of these memos — the people enforcing Trump’s war on DEI — are themselves civil servants. They are the high-level career bureaucrats currently running these various agencies. They are not Trump political appointees. In other words, federal employees are split: some particularly among the rank-and-file are mounting a resistance, while the acting directors at the top seem happy to do Trump’s bidding.
Take the Acting Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Todd B. Hunter, who sent a memo on Wednesday to VA staff. Hunter previously held a career position at the Veterans Benefits Administration, and remains so in his position as Acting Secretary, which does not require Senate confirmation.
Hunter’s case is an interesting one because his agency, the VA, oversees one of the victims of Trump’s executive order: the over one million American veterans who have service-related disabilities. As several leakers pointed out to me, Trump’s order doesn’t just target DEI, but “accessibility” as well — accommodations countless American veterans rely on.
“We are taking steps to close all agency diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) offices and end all DEIA-related contracts,” Hunter told VA staff in his memo. Beyond the simple cruelty, the directive cuts against one of the VA’s core missions: providing care to wounded veterans.
The acting secretary then asks employees to report to him any attempts to undermine Trump’s intent, specifically to report any contracts that have been signed since November 5 that “obscure the connection between the contract and DEIA or similar ideologies.”
“Failure to report this information within 10 days may result in adverse consequences,” he says.
Many other memos are similar. The White House sent out a template articulating Trump’s wishes from an Orwellian sounding email account (“DEIAtruth@opm.gov”), in reference to some kind of truth gestapo. Each “acting” secretary or agency head was then given the go ahead to modify the directive, some of which I’ve published below.
The media has referenced some of these but not published them, depriving the public of details like the names of the officials signing them, as described above. We publish what others won’t and if you support that, please become a paid subscriber so we can afford to do more.
Oh, and if you’re a federal employee, feel free to text me securely via Signal at 202-510-1268
— Edited by William M. Arkin
Good stuff, Klip! Seems like the last gasps of a dying bureaucracy.
“report to him any attempts to undermine Trump’s intent” god damn