Trump’s Significant Challenge to DEI, the Absence of a ‘Biden Doctrine,’ and More Insights

From the right: Trump’s Significant Move Against DEI

President Trump is “looking to shift away from his predecessor’s focus on racial distinctions, a sentiment echoed by millions of Americans,” applauds Jason L. Riley of The Wall Street Journal. “Racial equity once meant ensuring the same treatment for all, but it has now morphed into a progressive term for preferential treatment.” Under Biden, “federal agencies were instructed to ‘implement or boost the availability’ of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.” However, “Trump declared on Monday that he would halt these actions” and “promised to advocate for race- and gender-neutral policies in his second term,” signing “an executive order that effectively overturned the Biden administration’s DEI policies.” “Evidence continues to mount that the nation wishes to move beyond race, contrary to the political left’s persistent resistance.”

Foreign desk: The Absence of a ‘Biden Doctrine’

The so-called “Biden Doctrine” never materialized, asserts Ilan Berman at The Washington Times. Biden’s approach was essentially a “series of tactical reactions to global occurrences,” which were “compromised by the White House’s concerns about negative outcomes.” He “hesitated to provide Kyiv’s courageous defenders the means to gain an advantage over Moscow.” During the Gaza conflict, he applied “considerable political pressure on the Israeli government,” postponed the “distribution of crucial military aid,” and aimed to “restrict Jerusalem’s military objectives.” Additionally, remember his “notably subdued” response to Houthi attacks backed by Iran. “This is not just a record of missed chances; it serves as a valuable lesson for the forthcoming Trump foreign policy team.” “In foreign policy, seriousness is irreplaceable.”

Migrant beat: Avoid Using ‘Mass Deportation’

“Activists, officials, and journalists have frequently discussed the impending ‘mass deportation’ of undocumented immigrants,” but that phrase is merely “propaganda,” misrepresenting President Trump’s intentions, clarifies Seth Barron at City Journal. More accurately, the term describes “the wholesale detention and expulsion of an entire population based on nationality, ethnicity, or similar immutable trait.” In contrast, Trump’s strategy is “targeted,” focusing on individuals who “already possess removal orders and illegal aliens who have committed offenses.” Over 1 million individuals in the US “are subject to final removal orders,” having “gone through a review and appeals process.” While this population may be large, it does not qualify as ‘mass deportation.’”

COVID journal: Fauci’s Clemency Is a True Injustice

“There is no justification for granting clemency to the central figure in a scandal of monumental global importance,” proclaims Ian Birrell at UnHerd, criticizing President Biden’s pardon of Dr. Anthony Fauci. Fauci played a “crucial role in the secretive attempts by a group of leading scientists to silence debate regarding the origins of Covid-19,” which emerged mysteriously in Wuhan — home to a lab financed by Fauci’s NIH division “for high-risk, gain-of-function research into bat diseases.” It’s notable that Biden’s “pardon is backdated to 2014,” during a time when such research was banned in the US and when an NIH grant to Wuhan initiated. The silver lining: The pardon will not impede Senate and Justice Department inquiries.

Mideast watch: Significant Flaws in the Cease-Fire

President Trump “should be largely credited” for the cease-fire in Gaza, claims Jonathan S. Tobin from The Federalist. Good-hearted individuals are “celebrating” the release of three female hostages by Hamas. However, the terms — “the release of hundreds of Palestinian terrorists” and the “withdrawal of Israeli forces from most of Gaza” — raise serious questions about the security of the Jewish state. For Trump, this could escalate Middle Eastern conflicts. Nonetheless, it was his envoy, Steve Witkoff, who reportedly warned Benjamin Netanyahu to concede to the new president’s “demands” and accept the agreement. Witkoff’s rhetoric has mirrored that of Biden’s team regarding a post-conflict Gaza. Trump may soon face a decision between supporting “inevitable Israeli counter-actions in Gaza” or pressuring Jerusalem to “endure the consequences of terrorism.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board