Joe Biden turned the federal government into a DEI machine.
Trump just had his economists run the numbers on what that cost you.
Every American family is on the hook – and the figure is uglier than Biden ever admitted.
The White House Report That Puts a Dollar Figure on DEI
The White House Council of Economic Advisers released its 2026 Economic Report of the President on April 13, and Chapter 10 is the one the Left doesn't want you to read.
Researchers used federal labor data and statistical modeling to calculate what DEI-driven hiring actually did to the American economy.
The verdict: DEI policies reduced U.S. GDP by roughly $94 billion annually by 2023 – the equivalent of $1,160 every single year out of the pocket of a family with two working adults.
"These estimates imply that DEI promotion has led to inefficient management, raising the cost of doing business," the report states.
"These costs lead the companies practicing DEI to hire fewer people and pay their workers less."
The mechanism is straightforward: when businesses fill management positions based on race instead of competence, they get worse managers.
By 2023, industries that went all-in on DEI were 2.7 percent less productive than industries that didn't.
That gap only appeared after 2016 – when DEI pressure intensified across corporate America.
The report was explicit: this finding has nothing to do with the capabilities of any demographic group.
It has everything to do with a broken hiring system that rewarded identity over skill.
Janet Yellen's Equity Empire
Biden didn't just encourage DEI. He institutionalized it.
His executive orders directed every federal agency to appoint a chief diversity officer, submit annual "Equity Action Plans," and ensure that employees' "gender identities" were reflected in workplace documentation.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen took it further.
She set up an Equity Hub and an Advisory Committee on Racial Equality inside Treasury, burned millions on DEI consultants, and steered billions in federal dollars toward programs earmarked by race.
The number of DEI-related jobs quadrupled between 2017 and 2022.
References to DEI on corporate earnings calls became standard as companies signaled virtue and watched productivity slide.
Trump's economists noted that the fourfold growth in minority management positions between 2016 and 2023 wasn't organic.
It was DEI-driven promotion pushing people into roles ahead of qualification – and American workers and families absorbed the cost.
How Trump Ended DEI and What It Saved You
Trump moved on day one.
Three executive orders signed in January 2025 eliminated DEI offices, positions, and mandates across the federal government.
The orders rescinded Biden's equity directives, ended affirmative action requirements for federal contractors, and directed the Attorney General to identify private sector companies running discriminatory DEI programs.
In March 2026, Trump signed yet another executive order specifically targeting federal contractors still concealing DEI activities – because some companies tried to rebrand their programs rather than end them.
"The public release of these plans demonstrated immense public waste and shameful discrimination. That ends today," Trump wrote.
What took Biden four years to build, Trump dismantled in 15 months.
By the peak, corporate America was spending an estimated $7.5 billion annually on DEI programs, the federal government was burning through more than $100 million a year, and 68 out of 74 Fortune 100 companies had quietly started scrubbing DEI language from their proxy statements the moment Trump won.
The same corporations that lectured Americans about equity knew immediately the political winds had shifted – and their filings changed overnight.
They never believed in it. They just needed cover.
Trump's economists just ripped that cover away and handed Americans the receipt.
Sources:
- Travis Gillmore, "DEI Practices Reduce Productivity, Cost $94 Billion Annually: White House Economic Report," The Epoch Times, April 13, 2026.
- "2026 Economic Report of the President Released," White House Council of Economic Advisers, April 13, 2026.
- "President Trump Acts to Roll Back DEI Initiatives," Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, February 10, 2025.
- "Recent Executive Orders Are Reshaping DEI Disclosures in 2025 Proxy Statements," Winston & Strawn, June 30, 2025.
- "Executive Order: Addressing DEI Discrimination by Federal Contractors," White House, March 2026.
