President Donald Trump fired Coast Guard Commander Admiral Linda L. Fagan almost immediately after taking office, but she didn't hear about it until she was with Chief Ball's commander that evening.
Fagan found out she was being fired while waiting to have her photo taken with Trump at the ball, according to a military official who spoke to the New York Times. Fagan did not respond to a request for comment.
The Department of Homeland Security sent the bulletin with news of her job cuts to Coast Guard Leadership the morning after Inauguration Day
“She served a long and illustrious career and I thank her for her service to our nation,” said the message from acting DHS Secretary Benjamine C. Huffman soon.
The department revealed in a statement that Admiral Fagan was removed due to “leadership deficits, operational failures, and inability to advance the strategic objectives of the U.S. Coast Guard,” including failing to secure the border and stop drugs from entering the United States .
The statement also accused Fagan of failing to recruit and retain staff and having an “excessive focus” on DEI programs.
Admiral Kevin Lunday, Coast Guard's No. 2 in Command, was named acting Coast Guard Commander in her local.
Biden nominated Fagan as commander of the U.S. Coast Guard in April 2022, as her supporters hailed her as the first female admiral in a position of leadership of any of the armed forces.
Admiral Linda Fagan speaks after being sworn in as commander of the U.S. Coast Guard
Admiral Linda Fagan greets U.S. President Joe Biden during the U.S. Coast Guard Change Command Ceremony
Trump moved quickly on his promise to end diversity, equity policies and inclusion in the federal government, as he fired all DEI employees within 24 hours.
The new Trump administration sent a letter to all heads and acting heads of government agencies on Tuesday, informing them all federal employees in DEI roles to be placed on paid leave on Wednesday at 5 p.m.
All DEI offices in federal agencies will also be closed in the move, which comes after Trump signed an anti-DEEI executive order in front of a cheering crowd at his inauguration on Monday.
In a letter first obtained by CBS News, the agencies were ordered to “take swift action” against all departments “that focus solely on DEI initiatives and programs.”
The letter also demands that all Public DeI-facing web pages be taken offline and orders employees within the departments to “report any efforts to fix these programs using coded or inaccurate language.”
Employees who become aware of “coded or inaccurate language” intended to keep the i programs alive but do not report them within 10 days will be warned of “adverse consequences.”
Trump's executive order, titled “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Favoring and Initial Rescues of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions,” directly reverses a DEI executive order enacted by President Biden on his first day in office four years past.
Tuesday's order concludes: “These programs divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars and resulted in shameful discrimination.”
Donald Trump quickly made amends for his executive order that cut diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the federal government by placing all DEI employees on paid leave
After all DEI employees are placed on leave on Wednesday, agencies are ordered to develop plans to lay off every employee hired under the DEI policy, with a deadline of next Friday given to develop a list for a 'reduction of force actions'.
Agencies must then report to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on “all steps taken” to remove DEI programs by January 23, including a complete list of all employees who had been in DEI offices as of November 5, 2024.
A written plan for terminating all DEI employees must then be submitted to OPM by January 31, 2025, including a list of any contract descriptions or employee position descriptions that have been changed since November 5, 2024 to conceal their DEI intentions.
The executive order slammed the “infiltration” of DEI programs into the federal government, citing the executive order signed by Biden on the first day of his presidency aimed at addressing racial disparities in government.
Another similar executive order signed by Trump on Tuesday also rolled back affirmative action in federal contracting, reversing a longstanding order first signed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965.
Trump's anti-dei executive order directly reverses one signed by President Biden on the first day of his presidency four years ago aimed at addressing racial disparities in government (pictured signed on January 20, 2021)
Protesters seen outside the Supreme Court in June 2023, after the court struck down affirmative action in college admissions, one of the first big hits for DEI practices under the Biden administration
Today, approximately 60 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, critical and influential institutions of American society, including the federal government, major corporations, financial institutions, the medical industry, major commercial airlines, law enforcement agencies, and agencies and institutions of higher education have adopted and actively used dangerous, demeaning and immoral race- and sex-based preferences under the guise of so-called “diversity, equity and inclusion,” read the memo.
Trump's order argued that DEI programs not only violate the text and spirit of our long-standing federal civil rights laws, they also undermine our national unity. '
“They deny, discredit and undermine traditional American values of hard work, excellence and individual achievement in favor of an illegitimate, corrosive and pernicious identity-based plunder system,” the memo continued.
