President Trump and Elon Musk have brought a “move fast and break things” style to Washington that is inspiring aggressive outside advocacy campaigns and giving new significance behind past right-wing efforts.

A “DEI WATCH LIST” is one example of how conservatives are still finding ways to pile on with the shocking and attention-grabbing tactics that fuel the Trump moves.

The recently-released list, announced with Trump’s signature all-caps text, set off a flurry of concern, fear and criticism — which Tom Jones, who leads the American Accountability Foundation that compiled the list, saw as a validation of the work.

“If you're not taking flak, you're not over the target,” Jones told me in an interview. “If the New York Times hasn't called me a racist, I'm probably not doing my job.”

The list named dozens of federal workers who are not only explicitly focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion, but that Jones alleges are “aggressive activists in the DEI space” in other ways. The list dug into the individuals’ past jobs, op-eds, social media posts, campaign donations and more.

Democrats and other outsiders decried the project as a scare tactic intended to intimidate public employees, expressing concern that it listed mostly Black workers. The head of the American Public Health Association, Dr. Georges Benjamin, called the project racist. Concerns swirled about safety and physical threats against those on the list, NBC News reported.

“It's all bull----. Like, they literally have no examples of anyone being threatened,” Jones said, adding that he has gotten death threats in his own email in wake of the watch list going live.

I asked Jones about how he would feel if the list does inspire some kind of threat against these individuals. He wouldn’t entertain the notion. “It's just a red herring. It's not a worthy hypothetical to discuss.”

Trump signed an executive order to terminate DEI in the federal workforce. But Jones is hoping to see that order implemented even more broadly, such as taking action against senior leaders who might have some DEI ties but not have it in their job title.

“This isn't filling potholes. It's not a position where your ideology doesn't matter. It's a position where your ideology is essential and at the core of what you do. And that's why these people can't be........

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