For President Donald Trump's allies, his crackdown on the "illegal and immoral discrimination" of equal opportunities programs reflects a shifting US electorate that has lost patience with ineffective and performative political correctness.

For Trump critics, however, it is a frontal assault on civil rights that will chill efforts to create a fairer country, dismantling decades of affirmative action that they argue led to a more skilled, representative workforce.

Trump repeatedly previewed his plan to stamp out diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) during his election campaign, but the breakneck pace of the changes -- and the extent of their reach -- has caught many off guard.

Since his return to office last week, administration officials have been racing to prosecute Trump's war on DEI across the federal bureaucracy -- dismantling training initiatives, scrapping grants and sidelining hundreds of workers.

"Woke is not inevitable. It is not invincible. It is not indestructible. The counter-revolution is coming," anti-DEI crusader Christopher Rufo wrote on X in a post marking Trump's first week in........

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