US PRESIDENT Donald Trump’s administration ordered that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave by 5pm today and eventually be made redundant.

The moves follow an executive order Mr Trump signed on his first day back in office ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s DEI programmes that could touch on everything from anti-bias training to funding for minority farmers and homeowners.

The President has called the programmes “discrimination” and insisted on restoring strictly so-called “merit-based” hiring.

The Office of Personnel Management also directed government agencies to take down all public DEI-focused webpages by the same deadline.

Agencies must also cancel any DEI-related training and end any related contracts, and federal workers are being asked to report to Mr Trump’s Office of Personnel Management if they suspect any DEI-related programme has been renamed to obfuscate its purpose within 10 days or face “adverse consequences.”

By Thursday, federal agencies are directed to compile a list of federal DEI offices and workers as of election day. By next Friday, they are expected to develop a plan to execute a “reduction-in-force action” against those federal workers.

Mr Trump’s new anti-DEI agenda is more aggressive than his first time in office and comes amid a meeker and more pliant corporate world.

Prominent companies from Walmart to Facebook have already scaled back or ended some of their diversity practices in response to Mr Trump’s election and conservative-backed lawsuits against them.