More Than $1.1 Trillion Designated for DEI in 2025, Analysts Find

Federal agencies earmarked more than $1.1 trillion taxpayer dollars to further Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in 2025, a new report reveals.

DEI encompasses a broad set of beliefs supporting gender ideology, critical race theory and other ideas assigning people value based on their race, sex, religion or “gender identity.” It frequently manifests in programs offering money, opportunities and privileges to favored groups.

In “DEI Spending in the Biden Administration,” analysts from Center for Renewing America (CRA) and the Functional Government Initiative (FGI) identify 460 federal programs that set aside funding for DEI principles and policies in 2025.

These budgets were established in 2024, before President Trump took office and signed executive orders forbidding the federal government from implementing or supporting DEI and its “factors, goals, policies, mandates and requirements.”

But eliminating DEI isn’t as easy as axing every program with “diversity” in its name. The Trump administration must undertake the daunting task of tracking down and redirecting the $1.1 trillion intended for DEI this year.

Much of this money is mixed with legitimate spending. Of the 460 programs that allocated money to DEI in 2025, CRA and FGI analysts found only 10 “explicitly dedicated to DEI.”

When the federal government spends money on DEI, your taxes go to institutions and causes that perpetuate DEI, or to people of favored races, sexes and “gender identities,” rather than where they would be most impactful.

This is wasteful at best. At worst, it means your money is advancing discriminatory ideologies in schools, jobs and businesses across the country.

As President Trump has said,

In the report, CRA and FGI suggest the Trump administration cut the 10 programs dedicated to DEI, which are set to receive more than $8 billion in 2025.

An additional 144 programs allocated “significant resources to DEI initiatives” for 2025, but not their whole budgets. The report recommends President Trump claw back this money or redirect it to legitimate purposes.

These programs will receive more than $222 billion this year.

The remaining 306 programs spend varying amounts on DEI. Each program will have to be audited to determine what spending violates the President’s executive orders.

They have a cumulative budget of $896 billion this year.

Government agencies spent hundreds of billions of dollars funding DEI between 2021 and 2024. The report calls out some of these expenditures, including:

• $269.2 million to the Pentagon for “DEI programs.”
• $2.5 billion in 2022 for the Department of Defense to “employ approximately 35,000 individuals who are blind or have significant disabilities.”
• $16 million in 2023 for third party “diversity training” in the government.
• $2.5 million for the Department of Defense’s “Transgender Health Medical Evaluation Unity Services”
• $2.2 billion in Department of Agriculture (USDA) loans to “black and other minority famers who [have]faced loan discrimination, marking a step towards reconciling a long history of black owned farmland.”

Note that USDA justified $2.2 billion in loans to redress a past, perceived wrong — not solve a current problem. This was a common goal for DEI expenditures between 2021 and 2024. Consider the following statements from agencies’ 2023 “Equity Action Plans.”

• USDA: “We must…ensure equitable access to USDA programs and services for all communities, including by removing barriers to access and working to repair past mistakes that have resulted in economic, social and racial disparities” (emphasis added).
• Department of Energy: “[We are] prioritizing equity and place-based strategies in investments to model a clean energy transition that will deliver real benefits to frontline communities, especially those historically impacted by the legacy of pollution and environmental injustices” (emphasis added).
• Department of Housing and Urban Development: “[Our goal is] to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all … in ways that advance racial equity, respect the great diversity in our nation and begin to right historical wrongs” (emphasis added).

CRA and FGI hope the report will help the Trump administration enforce the President’s executive orders and stop any more taxes from going to DEI.

The Daily Citizen will continue reporting on the demise of DEI in federal government.

Additional Articles and Resources

President Trump Ends Radical DEI Programs, Fires All DEI Personnel

Department of Education Blew $1 Billion on DEI – Here’s Why It Matters

Disney, Target Among Major Companies Ditching DEI

Oklahoma Bans DEI in Universities and Government Agencies

Monique Duson: Responding to Critical Race Theory with Grace and Truth

Monique Duson: ‘Biblically Faithful and Sane Conversations on Race, Justice and Unity’