DEI Is Rebranding as ‘Targeted Universalism’ to Circumvent Trump’s Executive Order

How activist scholars are attempting to rebrand DEI to evade both public backlash and federal mandates.

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About the Author

Dr. Colin Wright is the CEO/Editor-in-Chief of Reality’s Last Stand, an evolutionary biology PhD, and Manhattan Institute Fellow. His writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Times, the New York Post, Newsweek, City Journal, Quillette, Queer Majority, and other major news outlets and peer-reviewed journals.

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On January 20, President Trump signed an executive order titled “Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing,” which banned DEI and racial discrimination in hiring under the guise of “equity.” It included specific instructions prohibiting rebranding efforts, stating that any attempt to preserve DEI programs under new titles would constitute a violation of federal law:

(ii) provide the Director of the OMB with a list of all:

(A) agency or department DEI, DEIA, or “environmental justice” positions, committees, programs, services, activities, budgets, and expenditures in existence on November 4, 2024, and an assessment of whether these positions, committees, programs, services, activities, budgets, and expenditures have been misleadingly relabeled in an attempt to preserve their pre-November 4, 2024 function;

Despite these warnings, many institutions have attempted to preserve DEI initiatives by simply rebranding them while maintaining their core functions. Investigative journalists have documented numerous cases of such tactics. For instance, in February 2025, Washington Free Beacon reporter Aaron Sibarium revealed that the University of Michigan School of Nursing had renamed its DEI office the “Office of Community Culture,” and that Caltech had rebranded its top DEI official as the “Associate Vice President for Campus Climate”—all while retaining the original structure and mission.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) faced consequences for similar behavior. In April 2025, JPL parted ways with its chief inclusion officer, Neela Rajendra, after Sibarium reported that her title was changed to Chief of the Office of Team Excellence and Employee Success to comply with Trump’s executive order. Despite the rebranding, Rajendra continued managing racial affinity groups and promoting DEI initiatives. After these activities were publicly exposed, JPL’s director announced her departure, highlighting the risks of attempting to circumvent federal mandates.

But instead of backing away, some academics are openly acknowledging the need to rebrand.

An article published last month in the journal Social Issues and Policy Review is a clear example. Titled “Black Student Belonging in K-12 Schools: Implications for Policy and Practice Amid Attacks on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,” the paper pushes for a rebranded version of DEI called “targeted universalism.” The authors justify this approach by citing “the current political climate in the U.S., where Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts are increasingly contested,” as the reason for offering “a strategic pathway for advancing equity.”