President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to end Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) hiring and promotion practices in foreign service.

The president signed the executive order on Tuesday which instructs Secretary of State Marco Rubio to remove any mention of DEI from the State Department’s hiring and promotion practices.

Hiring and promotions are instructed to be based solely on merit, the executive order said.

“Over the last 4 years, divisive and discriminatory policies were systematically embedded into every part of the Federal Government, including hiring processes and employee performance evaluations in the Foreign Service. It is the policy of the Federal Government that hiring in foreign policy positions, like hiring in all other parts of the Government, shall be based solely on merit,” the executive order said.

“The Secretary of State shall, consistent with applicable law, promptly revise the 2022-2025 Decision Criteria for Tenure and Promotion in the Foreign Service, issued under section 2326.2 of title 3 of the Foreign Affairs Manual, to remove any reference to the Core Precept entitled ‘Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility.’ The Secretaries shall promptly direct all employees of their Departments not to give this Core Precept any force or effect,” it said.

The secretaries, which included Rubio, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, were instructed to “determine if any current Foreign Service Members have knowingly and willfully engaged in unconstitutional or otherwise illegal discrimination based upon race or other protected characteristics, including actions motivated by discriminatory equity ideology. Consistent with Executive Order 14211 of February 12, 2025.”

The order said that “Foreign Service Members appointed by a Secretary whom that Secretary finds to have engaged in such discrimination, take appropriate action; and with respect to Foreign Service Members appointed by the President, determine whether to refer any findings of discrimination for the President’s consideration or take appropriate action under the Secretary’s own authority.”