Trump DEI crackdown ‘misses core ideology' and must target lingering danger on campuses, watchdog warns
FIRST ON FOX: Experts are calling on President Donald Trump to issue a new executive order to attack a "dominant" socialist-inspired ideology they say is the "foundation" of a growing domestic terrorist movement in the United States.
Fox News Digital exclusively reviewed a report that details how diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices have continued to thrive on hundreds of U.S. campuses through a more deeply rooted ideology, "intersectionality." The Legal Insurrection Foundation and the Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies issued the report.
"Intersectionality’s toxic influence must be confronted head-on," the report said, emphasizing, "The future of our education system and the safety of our nation depend upon it."
Despite several executive orders by Trump banning DEI, the report found that progressive school administrators across the country continue to profile students by group identity and to teach students to view America and Western society as global oppressors. The result, the report says, is increasing social discord and even violence spreading across America.
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The report's authors urge the president to take executive action to address intersectionality specifically by name, arguing that doing so will close a loophole that allows DEI practices to continue under the intersectionality banner. The report also calls on the administration to replace this school of thought with education programs that promote traditional American values.
Intersectionality has been advanced by Kimberlé Crenshaw, a Columbia Law School professor who developed the intersectional theoretical framework in the late 1980s, as a method of describing overlapping forms of discrimination. She argues that by treating race and gender as "mutually exclusive categories of experience and analysis," society and the legal system distort and theoretically erase the multidimensional experiences of Black women.
The Legal Insurrection Foundation and the Defense of Freedom Institute’s report, however, cautions that intersectionality is "inherently socialist and collectivist," as it "judges people based on group identity." By emphasizing the "intersection" of perceived victimhood categories, the report says women are seen as preferable to men, "people of color" to Whites, homosexual or transgender-identifying people as preferable to heterosexuals, and Muslims as preferable to Jews or Christians.
While the report says the Trump administration’s efforts to address DEI thus far are "laudable," these actions continue to be flouted so that the U.S. educational system remains "the mechanism for intersectionality to embed in the culture."
According to the report, the groups have documented the propagation of intersectionality in more than 700 educational institutions, consisting primarily of college campuses but also K-12 schools.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Legal Insurrection founder William Jacobson cautioned that "as much as some of the problems have been recognized, the underlying ideological foundation has not been identified or understood."
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He explained that intersectionality goes even deeper than DEI, saying that it is "in many ways, the mother's milk of critical race theory, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and increasingly linked to violent domestic terrorism through anarchists and other groups."
He described the ongoing movement as a "multi-billion-dollar industry" consisting of teachers, professors, administrators, consultants and philanthropies.
"It’s massive," he explained, adding, "This was 30 years in the making. It's not going to go away with a handful of executive orders."
The report draws a line between the intersectional ideology being pushed in schools and recent domestic terror plots, including by the anti-capitalist student group "Turtle Island Liberation Front." This December, five members of the group were indicted for allegedly plotting to simultaneously bomb multiple targets in California beginning on New Year’s Eve. The individuals are also accused of plotting to target U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers as well.
According to the report, "Turtle Island," a term rooted in Native American lore, is the intersectional name being used for North America. Turtle Island Liberation Front’s call for decolonization and tribal sovereignty echoes intersectionality’s core message, says the report.
Both groups, as well as Jacobson, are calling on the president and Congress to take immediate action through executive orders and congressional hearings.
"We're calling on the administration to update their executive orders [and] to issue a new executive order which includes intersectionality under the definitions of diversity, equity, and inclusion," he said.
Jacobson emphasized that while any individual scholar or student can hold or advance intersectional beliefs, he said, "the question is, are federal funds being used to promote unlawful discrimination?"
"We are not calling for a ban on intersectionality as a theory," he clarified. "What we are calling on the government to do is to make sure that federal funds are not used to promote racially and ethnically and religiously discriminatory activities that take place under the name of intersectionality."
He put it in simple terms: "People may have a constitutional right to espouse intersectionality, but the government doesn't have to pay for it."
Beyond this, he also called on Congress to get involved.
"We've seen on many issues, including antisemitism, that congressional hearings have proven extremely informative and extremely effective at addressing the problems," he said.
The report also calls for the administration to use every facet of the government to root out intersectionality. Other methods suggested include updating federal agency guidance regarding intersectional practices, pursuing litigation where it is being practiced, defunding those institutions, and instead funding research and civics education programs that promote American ideals.
"It's hard to understand unless you live in that world, which I do, how pervasive and dominant these racial ideologies are on campuses," he emphasized, adding, "It is the dominant ideology on campuses."
"There are very few alternatives for students on most campuses," he went on. "And that's why we think the Trump administration, to the extent it is supporting various educational initiatives, should insist that schools, if they want federal money, have to have traditional American civics programming as an alternative to what is there now."
Fox News Digital reached out to Crenshaw for comment.