New executive actions from the Trump administration on Tuesday make clear that not only is President Donald Trump using his power to purge the practice of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) from the federal government — he’s acting to try and purge it from American culture as a whole.

In an executive order Tuesday night, Trump dismantled the decades-old requirements that federal contractors practice affirmative action by trying to employ more women and people of color. Trump’s acting chief of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) — the office that oversees the federal civil service — also ordered that all employees of DEIA (diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility) offices at federal agencies be placed on paid administrative leave by the end of the day Wednesday.

But Trump went further, also taking aim at DEI in the private and nonprofit sectors. His executive order instructed the Justice Department and other agencies to identify “the most egregious and discriminatory DEI practitioners” in their jurisdiction.

Every federal agency, the order went on, must send a recommendation to the attorney general of up to nine potential investigations of corporations, large nonprofits, foundations with assets of $500 million or more, higher education institutions with endowments of $1 billion or more, or bar and medical associations. All this, the order said, was meant to “encourage the private sector to end illegal discrimination and preferences, including DEI.”

DEI is, broadly, efforts at companies, universities, and other institutions to manage their internal cultures on identity-related matters, from hiring to workplace policies. Its supporters say DEI is necessary to combat bias and ensure employees of underrepresented backgrounds feel comfortable and supported. Its critics argue say it often crosses the line into speech policing and advances a progressive political agenda that conservatives don’t share.

Trump’s legal justification for all this is his claim that DEI programs or race- and sex-based preferences can violate civil rights laws — he claims that they often amount to illegal discrimination (the implication being: discrimination against whites, Asian Americans, and men when they do not receive such preferences). The order argues that........

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