President Trump’s war on diversity, equity and inclusion policies is making America weaker, less secure and less just.

Trump's recent firings of Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. C.Q. Brown, who is Black, and the female leaders of the Navy and Coast Guard illustrate the harm caused by his anti-DEI campaign.

The president seems to believe that straight white men without disabilities advance in their careers based on merit, while everyone else is often unqualified and advances despite poor performance because of DEI mandates. It’s as if, in Trump's mind, DEI stood for “didn’t earn it.”

A look at the records of Brown and the two fired female service chiefs — Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti and Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Linda Fagan — shows all three are highly qualified and earned their leadership positions based on their records, not race or gender. They should never have been fired.

DEI policies right the wrongs of the past. For example, it would have been impossible for Black people and women to become senior military leaders during most of our nation’s history.

Black men have served in all of America’s wars, but their roles were limited for no reason other than racism. Our armed forces were racially segregated until 1948.

While women served as cooks, nurses and in other non-combat roles to support our military early in U.S. history, they weren’t allowed to join our armed forces in significant numbers until World War I. It wasn’t until 2015 that all roles, including ground combat, opened up........

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