After Scrutiny, Battlefield Preservation Agency Complies With Trump DEI Order

On President Donald Trump’s first day in office, he ordered all federal agencies to terminate all of their diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and all DEI offices and positions, including “chief diversity officer” positions. One federal agency, the American Battle Monuments Commission, appeared to disobey that order until it came under scrutiny.

Although Trump issued his order on Jan. 20, the American Battle Monuments Commission’s website and organizational chart still prominently displayed that Priscilla Rayson held the position of “chief diversity officer” until this Monday evening.

Its website also featured a statement by Rayson saying that DEI is important to the agency’s mission and success: “Although much work has been done to implement DEIA [diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility] in the workplace, there is still more work to be done to create a truly diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace.”

The commission is an executive-branch agency that maintains American battlefields, monuments, and military cemeteries overseas. Its mission is to honor “the service, achievements, and sacrifice of the U.S. armed forces,” and it has done that job beautifully. America’s foreign cemeteries are awe-inspiring places where rows upon rows of lovingly cared-for gravestones pay tribute to Americans who paid everything for the cause of freedom. 

The commission has done its duty without DEI since 1923. But after President Joe Biden announced a “whole of government” DEI mandate, the commission began, in its own words, to “aggressively pursue the mandate.”

Biden appointed every member of the commission who runs the agency and the secretary who overseas its daily operations and long-term planning.

It’s unclear why the commission had not complied with Trump’s order to terminate all DEI offices and chief diversity officer positions, or if it had, why it had not made that information public. As an executive-branch agency, it is under the president’s authority. And when Biden issued his DEI mandate, the agency “aggressively” complied. Nothing in the American Battle Monuments Commission’s authorizing statute purports to immunize it from executive orders.

After The Heritage Foundation inquired about whether the order had been followed, the agency announced that it was complying.

“ABMC is fully compliant with the president’s executive order,” wrote its chief of public affairs to Heritage. “ABMC does not have a stand-alone DEI office or any DEI contracts. ABMC’s chief diversity officer has been placed on administrative leave, pending additional guidance from [the Office of Personnel Management].”

After Heritage’s inquiry, the agency put its DEI statement behind a password protected webpage and removed all the content from the chief diversity officer’s webpage, except her title and name. “We continue to monitor and ensure compliance,” the agency said.

It’s unclear why DEI was ever necessary to preserve American battlefields abroad and to honor the men and women who fought and died on them. The agency’s now-hidden diversity statement did not explain that except to make the broad claim that organizations that use DEI are “more successful” than those that do not.

According to its website, the four skills most important to working for the agency are (1) the ability to supervise laborers in their local language, (2) the ability to clean and maintain monuments and cemeteries, (3) the ability to communicate “the story of the soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen buried and memorialized in our cemeteries, and of the military operations in the immediate area,” and (4) the ability to live in an overseas environment.

Language skills, management skills, historical knowledge, and a strong sense of patriotism would seem to be more important for the commission’s success than what identity boxes its employees check.

Although asked specifically why DEI was important to its mission, the agency did not answer other than to say it no longer engaged in those practices.

Its apparent disobedience led to calls on X for the Department of Government Efficiency to get involved. But even if the agency was not compliant, DOGE’s involvement would not have been necessary. According to the statute that governs the commission, all the commissioners and the secretary serve “at the pleasure of the president,” meaning that he can fire any of them whenever he wishes and replace them immediately.

If the president chooses to replace either the commissioners or the secretary, he ought to appoint people who are deeply committed to the commission’s noble calling. They should not be politicians or people who chase political favors, but duty- and honor-bound servants of the people who care about seeing that the commission’s work lasts forever.

The American Battle Monuments Commission does extraordinary work honoring the men and women who fought and died for America overseas. It should be singularly focused on that unifying mission.

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