Judge Declines to Order Trump Administration to Restore Research Cuts; The New York Times, August 1, 2025

Benjamin WeiserKatrina Miller and Zach Montague, The New York Times ; Judge Declines to Order Trump Administration to Restore Research Cuts

"A federal judge in New York declined in a ruling on Friday to order the Trump administration to restore hundreds of millions of dollars in terminated funding that had been awarded to research institutions by the National Science Foundation.

The ruling came in a lawsuit filed in May in which a coalition of 16 states argued that the grants were critical to maintaining the United States as a leader in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, subjects, and that the cuts were “in complete derogation of the policies and priorities set by Congress.”...

The judge, John P. Cronan of Federal District Court in Manhattan, found that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the suit because it sought monetary damages from the federal government. Such cases, he wrote, must be brought before the Court of Federal Claims in Washington...

“This evidence powerfully undermines plaintiffs’ argument that the priority directive renders this class of projects categorically ineligible for funding,” wrote Judge Cronan, who was nominated to the federal bench by President Trump in 2019 and confirmed the following year."

Donald Trump Is Fairy-Godmothering AI; The Atlantic, July 23, 2025

Matteo Wong , The Atlantic; Donald Trump Is Fairy-Godmothering AI

"In a sense, the action plan is a bet. AI is already changing a number of industries, including software engineering, and a number of scientific disciplines. Should AI end up producing incredible prosperity and new scientific discoveries, then the AI Action Plan may well get America there faster simply by removing any roadblocks and regulations, however sensible, that would slow the companies down. But should the technology prove to be a bubble—AI products remain error-prone, extremely expensive to build, and unproven in many business applications—the Trump administration is more rapidly pushing us toward the bust. Either way, the nation is in Silicon Valley’s hands...

Once the red tape is gone, the Trump administration wants to create a “dynamic, ‘try-first’ culture for AI across American industry.” In other words, build and test out AI products first, and then determine if those products are actually helpful—or if they pose any risks.

Trump gestured toward other concessions to the AI industry in his speech. He specifically targeted intellectual-property laws, arguing that training AI models on copyrighted books and articles does not infringe upon copyright because the chatbots, like people, are simply learning from the content. This has been a major conflict in recent years, with more than 40 related lawsuits filed against AI companies since 2022. (The Atlantic is suing the AI company Cohere, for example.) If courts were to decide that training AI models with copyrighted material is against the law, it would be a major setback for AI companies. In their official recommendations for the AI Action Plan, OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google all requested a copyright exception, known as “fair use,” for AI training. Based on his statements, Trump appears to strongly agree with this position, although the AI Action Plan itself does not reference copyright and AI training.

Also sprinkled throughout the AI Action Plan are gestures toward some MAGA priorities. Notably, the policy states that the government will contract with only AI companies whose models are “free from top-down ideological bias”—a reference to Sacks’s crusade against “woke” AI—and that a federal AI-risk-management framework should “eliminate references to misinformation, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and climate change.” Trump signed a third executive order today that, in his words, will eliminate “woke, Marxist lunacy” from AI models...

Looming over the White House’s AI agenda is the threat of Chinese technology getting ahead. The AI Action Plan repeatedly references the importance of staying ahead of Chinese AI firms, as did the president’s speech: “We will not allow any foreign nation to beat us; our nation will not live in a planet controlled by the algorithms of the adversaries,” Trump declared...

But whatever happens on the international stage, hundreds of millions of Americans will feel more and more of generative AI’s influence—on salaries and schools, air quality and electricity costs, federal services and doctor’s offices. AI companies have been granted a good chunk of their wish list; if anything, the industry is being told that it’s not moving fast enough. Silicon Valley has been given permission to accelerate, and we’re all along for the ride."

Donald Trump Says AI Companies Can’t Be Expected To Pay For All Copyrighted Content Used In Their Training Models: “Not Do-Able”; Deadline, July 23, 2025

Ted Johnson, Tom Tapp, Deadline; Donald Trump Says AI Companies Can’t Be Expected To Pay For All Copyrighted Content Used In Their Training Models: “Not Do-Able”

 

[Kip Currier: Don't be fooled by the flimflam rhetoric in Trump's AI Action Plan unveiled yesterday (July 23, 2025). Where Trump's AI Action Plan says “We must ensure that free speech flourishes in the era of AI and that AI procured by the Federal government objectively reflects truth rather than social engineering agendas", it's actually the exact opposite: the Trump plan is censorious and will "cancel out" truth (e.g. on climate science, misinformation and disinformation, etc.) in Orwellian fashion.]

[Excerpt]

"The plan is a contrast to Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, who focused on the government’s role in ensuring that the technology was safe.

The Trump White House plan also recommends updating federal procurement guidelines “to ensure that the government only contracts with frontier large language model (LLM) developers who ensure that their systems are objective and free from top-down ideological bias.” Also recommended is revising the National Institute of Standards and Technology AI Risk Management Framework to remove references to misinformation, DEI and climate change.

“We must ensure that free speech flourishes in the era of AI and that AI procured by the Federal government objectively reflects truth rather than social engineering agendas,” the plan says."

Hot Days, Hotter Topics | ALA Annual 2025; Library Journal, July 9, 2025

Matt Enis, Lisa Peet, Hallie Rich, & Kara Yorio , Library Journal; Hot Days, Hotter Topics | ALA Annual 2025

"This year’s American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference, held from June 26–30 in Philadelphia, drew 14,250 participants: librarians and library staff, authors, publishers, educators, and exhibitors, including 165 international members. While still not up to pre-pandemic attendance levels, the conference was—by all accounts—buzzing and busy, with well-attended sessions and a bustling exhibit floor.

Even with temperatures topping 90˚, Philly wasn’t the only hot aspect of the conference. A cluster of topics seemed to be at the center of nearly every discussion: how libraries would cope in the face of current or anticipated budget cuts, the impacts of ongoing attacks on the freedom to read and DEI, the ramping up of ICE and police surveillance, the dismantling of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and firing of Librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden, and the uses and ethics of artificial intelligence (AI)."

CIA historian Tim Weiner: ‘Trump has put national security in the hands of crackpots and fools’; The Guardian, July 15, 2025

 Aaron Gell, The Guardian; CIA historian Tim Weiner: ‘Trump has put national security in the hands of crackpots and fools’

"Trump’s anti-diversity crusade will also have national security repercussions, Weiner predicted. In February, a judge allowed the administration to reassign the team responsible for diversifying the agency. “For decades, the CIA has tried to hire people who don’t look like they just got off the bus from Kansas on the very sound principle that if you want to spy in a nation like Somalia or Pakistan or China, it might be wise to have a workforce that is not made up exclusively of white guys, and who speak languages other than English,” Weiner said. “Diversity was one of the CIA’s few superpowers, and the mindless abolition of the effort to diversify the CIA’s officers and analysts was one of the most stupid self-inflicted wounds that Ratcliffe could have delivered.”"

What the University of Virginia Should Have Done; The New York Times, June 30, 2025

 Timothy J. Heaphy, The New York Times ; What the University of Virginia Should Have Done

"According to The Times, Mr. Ryan’s departure was prompted by “demands by the Trump administration that he step aside to help resolve a Justice Department inquiry into the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.” The Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department has been investigating the university for its alleged failure to eliminate D.E.I. programs and continuing to consider race and ethnicity in various programs and scholarships.

I served as university counsel at the University of Virginia from 2018 through 2022. During that time, it was my job to defend the university from unfounded allegations and investigations. The Justice Department has alleged that the university’s actions violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which states, “No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.” Had I been university counsel last week, I would have advised my client to challenge what I believe to be a false allegation that the university’s policies are unlawful...

Mr. Ryan was known to urge the university to be both “great and good” in all its endeavors. His departure will result in a less inclusive university community, which will harm all students who choose the University of Virginia. It is a sad day for the university, which will suffer the consequences of this bad decision."

Trump sent ‘explicit’ threat to cut funds from University of Virginia, senator says; The Guardian, June 29, 2025

Marina Dunbar , The Guardian; Trump sent ‘explicit’ threat to cut funds from University of Virginia, senator says

"The University of Virginia (UVA) received “explicit” notification from the Trump administration that the school would endure cuts to university jobs, research funding and student aid as well as visas if the institution’s president, Jim Ryan, did not resign, according to a US senator.

During an interview Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation, Mark Warner, a Democratic senator for Virginia, defended Ryan – who had championed diversity policies that the president opposes – and predicted that Donald Trump will similarly target other universities.

Warner said he understood that the former UVA president was told that if he “tried to fight back, hundreds of employees would lose jobs, researchers would lose funding, and hundreds of students could lose financial aid or have their visas withheld”.

“There was indication that they received the letter that if he didn’t resign on a day last week, by 5 o’clock, all these cuts would take place,” Warner added. He also said he believes this to be the “most outrageous action” that the Trump administration has taken on education since it retook office in January.

Ryan resigned from his position as UVA president on Friday. He was facing political pressure from Washington to step aside in order to resolve a justice department investigation into UVA’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies, the New York Times reported on the same day.

“I cannot make a unilateral decision to fight the federal government in order to save my own job,” Ryan said in his resignation message to the university community. He expressed an unwillingness to risk the employment of other staff, as well as cuts to funding and financial aid for students.

Ryan had a reputation for trying to make the UVA campus more diverse and encouraging students to perform community service. He had served as the university’s president since 2018."

UVA President James Ryan Caved to MAGA—and They Forced Him Out Anyway; The New Republic, June 27, 2025

Siva Vaidhyanathan, The New Republic ; UVA President James Ryan Caved to MAGA—and They Forced Him Out Anyway

[Kip Currier: Capitulation to Trump almost never gives people and organizations what they think or hope it will. For examples, just look to the craven law firms that have debased themselves and are paying the price for submission.

The forcing out of UVA President James Ryan is just another step in what Trump et al have planned for higher education.]

[Excerpt]

"Thomas Jefferson’s vision for a noble and educated republic has been dealt a firm blow. The enemies of free and open inquiry, of science, and of informed, democratic citizenship have chopped off the head of the very university Jefferson founded to make his vision real. 

On Friday, the Trump administration, aided by a board appointed entirely by Republican Governor Glenn Younkin, forced University of Virginia President James Ryan to resign. The Justice Department had threatened to block all federal funds to the second-oldest public university in the country if Ryan remained in office.   

Ryan and the board had eliminated all diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in March, even though the specious executive order commanding such changes was already under challenge by the courts. The university chose to comply rather than fight.   

But, in a turn that Franz Kafka would appreciate (and perhaps inspired), the Trump administration declared that capitulation insufficient. In a clumsily worded letter to the university sent in April, the Department of Justice claimed that it had “received complaints that [Ryan’s] office and the University may have failed to implement these directives and further that you have refused to produce the report on the matter.”...

To this day, no one at the university has a clear idea what the university could or should have done. The New York Times reported Thursday that the only specific move the Justice Department demanded in recent weeks was Ryan’s resignation. 

Laying the attack on the University of Virginia on DEI was brilliant and maddening. What, exactly, is DEI? Those of us who work in universities have a good idea. It is the collection of efforts and programs that allow students who have served in the military, do not come from homes that have had college students before, graduated from high schools deep in the coal fields of Appalachia, arrived on student visas from Nigeria, have endured sexual violence or harassment, or occupy segments of society that are constantly under attack from the majority to succeed and graduate. They are not zero-sum programs. They do not deny anyone else an opportunity to attend a university or thrive at one.   

DEI programs recognize that society and the world are complex, diverse places."

Hegseth announces new name of US navy ship that honored gay rights icon Harvey Milk; The Guardian, June 27, 2025

Edward Helmore, The Guardian ; Hegseth announces new name of US navy ship that honored gay rights icon Harvey Milk

[Kip Currier: The money quote in this Guardian article is Pete Hegseth's statement that:

“People want to be proud of the ship they are sailing in."

It's an intentionally offensive statement against gay rights pioneer Harvey Milk. It's also a coded slur meant to troll LGBTQ+ people -- delivered at the tail end of Pride Month -- by suggesting which vessel names inspire feelings of pride and which do not.

Recall, too, that Hegseth kicked off June and Pride Month by announcing he would be renaming naval vessels that had been given the names of historical figures and civil rights activists, several of whom were veterans, like Harvey Milk, Cesar Chavez, and Medgar Evers.]

[Excerpt]

"The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has formally announced that the US navy supply vessel named in honor of the gay rights activist Harvey Milk is to be renamed after Oscar V Peterson, a chief petty officer who received the congressional Medal of Honor for his actions in the Battle of the Coral Sea in the second world war.

“We are taking the politics out of ship naming,” Hegseth announced on Friday on X.

In an accompanying video-statement, Hegseth added: “We are not renaming the ship to anything political. This is not about political activists, unlike the previous administration. Instead, we are renaming the ship after a congressional Medal of Honor recipient.”

“People want to be proud of the ship they are sailing in,” Hegseth added."

Bill Clinton says he wondered if Trump administration might try to ban his latest book; The Hill, June 18, 2025

 JUDY KURTZ , The Hill; Bill Clinton says he wondered if Trump administration might try to ban his latest book

"“Maya Angelou, who read the inaugural poem at my first inauguration — wrote it, and read it and was a great human being — the first thing the White House did was to ban her book, ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,'” Clinton recalled.

Angelou’s 1969 autobiography was reportedly one of nearly 400 books that was pulled from the U.S. Naval Academy library in April as part of an effort to remove titles containing diversity, equity and inclusion content. 

Calling it a “magnificent book,” Clinton reflected on Angelou’s personal story about a child who “loses the ability to speak for a couple of years because she was abused, and then she blooms.”

“I couldn’t figure out why that was a problem,” Clinton said.

“I don’t like book banning,” the 42nd president added.

“I wasn’t ever for banning books that were full of things they said about me that weren’t true,” Clinton said.

“It never occurred to me that I should stop you from reading them.”"

Trump administration could change the way we read, from book bans to author talks; USA TODAY, June 18, 2025

Clare Mulroy , USA TODAY; Trump administration could change the way we read, from book bans to author talks

"Hazelwood's tour snag sparked a discussion on book communities about how President Donald Trump's recent policies would trickle down to publishing. Amid book banning, border policies, new anti-DEI sentiments and federal library grant cuts, these are the ways the new administration may impact readers. 

Trump administration's policies shake author tour plans...

Authors worry about impact of Trump, DEI backslide...

Grant cuts threaten libraries, public spaces for readers...

Book banning continues in libraries, classrooms"

How Trump Treats Black History Differently Than Other Parts of America’s Past; The New York Times, June 20, 2025

Erica L. Green , The New York Times; How Trump Treats Black History Differently Than Other Parts of America’s Past

"On the occasion of Juneteenth, a day that commemorates the end of slavery, President Trump took a moment to complain that the national holiday even exists.

“Too many non-working holidays in America,” Mr. Trump wrote on social media, just hours after his press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, made a point of noting that White House staff had shown up to work.

The president’s decision to snub Juneteenth — a day that has been cherished by generations of Black Americans before it was named a federal holiday in 2021 — is part of a pattern of words and actions by Mr. Trump that minimize, ignore or even erase some of the experiences and history of Black people in the United States. Since taking office in January, he has tried to reframe the country’s past involving racism and discrimination by de-emphasizing that history or at times denying that it happened."

The Reagan-Appointed Judge Fast-Tracking Trump to Trial; The New York Times, June 18, 2025

 Zach Montague , The New York Times; The Reagan-Appointed Judge Fast-Tracking Trump to Trial

"After 40 years on the federal bench, Judge William G. Young recently experienced what he viewed as a career first, and it didn’t sit well with him.

“I have never seen government racial discrimination like this,” Judge Young said on Monday, excoriating the Trump administration in a lengthy speech from the U.S. District Court in Boston.

In keeping with his usual process, he had ordered a quick trial to debate the merits of two lawsuits challenging some of the government’s cuts to research grants and programs administered by the National Institutes of Health — the first trial in the more than 400 cases contesting nearly all aspects of President Trump’s agenda winding their way through the courts.

The grants at issue, which funded research into diversity-related topics like health disparities in Black and L.G.B.T.Q. communities, were canceled by Mr. Trump and N.I.H. leadership as part of the administration’s efforts to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and roll back transgender rights. Judge Young cast his decision to block the cuts as his duty in following the Constitution...

When the government returned to present its case on Monday, many of the same questions re-emerged, and Judge Young reached his conclusion: The Trump administration had purposefully stopped health research that benefits vulnerable or underserved Americans.

“That’s appalling,” he said."

'We had lots of dreams'; Idaho's library system ends, restructures programs amid federal funding cuts; Idaho Press, June 14, 2025

LAURA GUIDO , Idaho Press; 'We had lots of dreams'; Idaho's library system ends, restructures programs amid federal funding cuts

[Kip Currier: The Digital Equity Act of 2021 would have helped millions of Americans -- like the millions of Idahoans referenced in this Idaho Press article -- to finally have high quality Internet access.

Sadly, those Internet access plans all came crashing down when the Trump administration declared the Act unconstitutional and "racist". As PBS reported on May 25, 2025:

"One program distributes laptops in rural Iowa. Another helped people get back online after Hurricane Helene washed away computers and phones in western North Carolina. Programs in Oregon and rural Alabama teach older people, including some who have never touched a computer, how to navigate in an increasingly digital world.

It all came crashing down this month when President Donald Trump — on his own digital platform, Truth Social — announced his intention to end the Digital Equity Act, a federal grant program meant to help bridge the digital divide. He branded it as “RACIST and ILLEGAL” and said it amounts to “woke handouts based on race.” He said it was an “ILLEGAL $2.5 BILLION DOLLAR giveaway,” though the program was actually funded with $2.75 billion.

The name seemed innocuous enough when the program was approved by Congress in 2021 as part of a $65 billion investment meant to bring internet access to every home and business in the United States. The broadband program itself was a key component of the $1 trillion infrastructure law pushed through by the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden."

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/the-digital-equity-act-tried-to-close-the-digital-divide-trump-targets-it-in-his-war-on-woke 

 

[Excerpt]

"Digital Access for All Idahoans

The commission has ended its nearly four-year effort to improve internet accessibility across the state following the termination of a grant from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration; the current presidential administration declared the grant, first awarded to Idaho in 2022, unconstitutional.

“On May 9, everything was canceled, and that was a pretty major initiative we’ve been undertaking,” Deputy State Librarian Dylan Baker told the board. “We were really … on the cusp of working through the subgrant process.”

The library commissioners first announced the Digital Access for All Idahoans plan in 2021, with a plan to use the federal grant to both improve access to the internet and improve the skills to navigate it confidently — the libraries focused primarily on the skills aspect of access.

Idaho had been awarded $6.3 million total, with more than $2.3 million slated to go to the first round of subgrantees that included libraries, community colleges, nonprofits and other state agencies, according to board documents.

Nearly 200,000 Idahoans were expected to be reached in 61 cities and towns in 30 counties, the board documents said."

Trump’s Cuts to N.I.H. Grants Focused on Minority Groups Are Illegal, Judge Rules; The New York Times, June 16, 2025

 Zach Montague, The New York Times ; Trump’s Cuts to N.I.H. Grants Focused on Minority Groups Are Illegal, Judge Rules

"A federal judge on Monday declared some of the Trump administration’s cuts to National Institutes of Health grants “void and illegal,” accusing the government of racial discrimination and prejudice against L.G.B.T.Q. individuals.

Ruling from the bench, Judge William G. Young of the Federal District Court for the District of Massachusetts delivered a damning assessment of the Trump administrations’ motives in targeting hundreds of grants that focused on the health of Black communities, women and L.G.B.T.Q. people. He ordered the government to restore much of that funding for now, pending an appeal.

“This represents racial discrimination and discrimination against America’s L.G.B.T.Q. community,” he said. “That’s what this is.”

Judge Young, a Reagan appointee with 40 years of experience as a federal judge, said the government’s rationale for canceling some of the grants, which also supported research into topics such as gender identity and equity in health care, appeared to be rooted in prejudice. He cited the administration’s very public efforts to eliminate any trace of diversity and equity initiatives from the federal government, as well as its attacks on transgender people.

He said that over the course of his career he had “never seen government racial discrimination like this,” and that he felt duty bound to state his conclusion about the government’s intent.

“I would be blind not to call it out,” he said...

Kenneth Parreno, a lawyer representing the American Public Health Association, called the government’s actions part of a campaign to ban what the administration saw as “forbidden topics” in science by canceling grants related to race or transgender health."

‘No way to invest in a career here’: US academics flee overseas to avoid Trump crackdown; The Guardian, June 15, 2025

Marina Dunbar , The Guardian; ‘No way to invest in a career here’: US academics flee overseas to avoid Trump crackdown

"Schuster is one of many budding academics reflecting what could become a significant American brain drain, sending the brightest minds in the country to flee the US and take their scholarly endeavors elsewhere. Historically, the US has attracted top talent from around the world, but the moves by the Trump administration may have reversed these conditions in record time.

Research institutions are feeling the strain from funding cuts from some of the biggest grant-making bodies in the world. The National Science Foundation (NSF) funds about 25% of federally backed basic research at US universities, but Trump’s proposed budget would cut over $5bn, or 57%, from its budget, chopping it from roughly $9bn down to $3.9bn. The US National Institutes of Health would lose about 40% of its budget compared to last year.

But those cuts aren’t the only cause for anxiety. Nerves throughout the scholarly community are also on edge given what is widely perceived as a historic attack on academic freedom through administration assaults against universities such Columbia and Harvard University under the guise of rooting out antisemitism and diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Dozens more universities are waiting for their turn."

NIH staff and biomedical community sound alarm about agency politicization, funding slowdown; Science, June 9, 2025

 

JOCELYN KAISER, Science; NIH staff and biomedical community sound alarm about agency politicization, funding slowdown

"In an unusual act of public protest, more than 340 scientists and staff at the National Institutes of Health today released a statement charging NIH officials and their superiors with politicizing science. The employees implore their new director to reverse cuts and freezes to external grants touching on topics such as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) that President Donald Trump has targeted with executive orders...

The declaration signers make up a relatively small portion of NIH’s employees, who numbered about 20,000 in January before the layoffs, early retirement offers, and other departures thinned the agency’s ranks by several thousand people. A second letter backing the Bethesda Declaration has so far been signed by 19 Nobel Prize winners and two former NIH leaders, among others. The two statements come as new data suggest NIH funding disbursements for ongoing grants ground to a halt in May, fueling fears that much of NIH’s 2025 budget will go unspent."

In Challenge to Trump, Smithsonian Says It Controls Personnel Decisions; The New York Times, June 9, 2025

Robin Pogrebin Graham Bowley and Zachary Small, The New York Times; In Challenge to Trump, Smithsonian Says It Controls Personnel Decisions

 "In a challenge to President Trump, the Smithsonian said on Monday that it retained the power over personnel decisions, a statement that came in the wake of the president’s announcement that he was firing Kim Sajet, the director of the National Portrait Gallery.

“All personnel decisions are made by and subject to the direction of the secretary, with oversight by the board,” said a statement from the Smithsonian, which oversees that museum and 20 others, as well as libraries, research centers and the National Zoo. “Lonnie G. Bunch, the secretary, has the support of the Board of Regents in his authority and management of the Smithsonian.”

The statement came hours after the Board of Regents, including Vice President JD Vance, discussed the president’s announcement at a quarterly meeting...

The fight over Ms. Sajet’s tenure has further complicated matters for Mr. Bunch, who was already under pressure to navigate a recognition of presidential power while defending the institution’s autonomy. Created by Congress as a trust to be administered by the board and the secretary, the institution receives two-thirds of its $1 billion in annual funding from the federal government.

The Smithsonian’s silence after Mr. Trump’s announcement about Ms. Sajet, the first woman to lead the National Portrait Gallery, appeared to signal a reluctance to challenge the president. But the board on Monday reacted in a way that, if not a complete statement of support for Ms. Sajet, was a clear effort by the institution to reassert its autonomy."

Dismissed by DEI: Trump’s Purge Made Black Women With Stable Federal Jobs an “Easy Target”; ProPublica, June 4, 2025

J. David McSwane , ProPublica; Dismissed by DEI: Trump’s Purge Made Black Women With Stable Federal Jobs an “Easy Target”

"Her experience is part of a largely untold story unfolding as Trump dismantles civil rights and inclusion programs across government: Many of those being forced out, like Crowner, are Black women who spent decades building a career of government service, only to see those careers shattered in a sudden purge.

ProPublica interviewed Crowner and two other career civil servants, all Black women, who are among the hundreds of fired federal employees represented in a legal action brought against the Trump administration. Filed in March with the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board by legal teams including the Washington branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, the case contends the administration violated the First Amendment rights of employees by targeting them for holding views perceived as contrary to the Trump 2.0 doctrine.

What has received less attention is the suit’s claim that the administration also violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. They claim the DEI purge disproportionately affected those who aren’t white men."

Ben & Jerry’s co-founder accuses corporate America of appeasement over DEI; Financial Times, June 6, 2025

Madeleine Speed , Financial Times; Ben & Jerry’s co-founder accuses corporate America of appeasement over DEI

"Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen said corporate America’s retreat from efforts to boost diversity and inclusion amounted to “appeasement”, as the campaigning businessman claimed consumers cared more than ever about corporate “purpose”. 

Companies ranging from Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, to Walt Disney and McDonald’s, have scaled back diversity targets or policies under pressure from US President Donald Trump, who is waging war on “illegal and immoral” diversity, equity and inclusion programmes.

Cohen told the Financial Times in an interview that he saw the widespread corporate retreats as “appeasement” that “just encourages bullies”. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

The Ben & Jerry’s co-founder added that the backtracking was indicative that while companies were notionally doing DEI they “didn’t really believe in it”."