DEI programs are designed to support groups historically facing discrimination or exclusion.
Warning for Travelers and European Businesses believing in DEI values by protecting:
- People of migrant or ethnic minority backgrounds
- Women, especially in male-dominated industries
- Black people and People of Color (PoC)
- LGBTQ+ individuals
- People with disabilities
- Religious minorities
- People from socially or economically marginalized communities
Over the years, enormous progress has been made in the United States to guarantee equality for minority groups. Just a few weeks into the Trump administration, it became clear that the “Land of the Free” is no longer such a brave country for minorities. Diversity is no longer tolerated. Some foreigners are now seen as rapists, or criminals, or illegal aliens making it a challenge for visitors touring Texas Highway 286 along the U.S. Mexican border, or enjoying a weekend partying in Tijuana.
Many European travel agencies strongly recommend that their U.S.-bound clients review the current situation before traveling. “If in doubt, consider postponing your trip.”
Immigration controls are currently stringent in Miami and Philadelphia. Travel from Mexico should also be avoided when possible.
An ideological directive
In the quiet offices of major French corporations—between binders, calendars, and EU compliance protocols—a new letter has arrived from across the Atlantic. It is not a diplomatic note or a trade agreement, but something far more fundamental:
Under President Donald Trump, the U.S. government has instructed French companies holding contracts with the federal government to comply with an executive order banning all Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs.
In his second term, Trump has begun exporting domestic ideology to foreign shores.
The target:
French firms contracted by the U.S. government. The objective is to eliminate DEI from every corner of those partnerships. The tone of the letter is formal, almost detached. Its content, however, is incendiary.
“We inform you that Executive Order 14173 – ‘Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunities’ – applies to all suppliers and service providers to the U.S. Government, regardless of their nationality or country of operation.”
So begins the letter sent by the U.S. Embassy in Paris, a copy of which was obtained by Le Figaro. Enclosed is a document titled:
Certification Regarding Compliance With Applicable Federal Anti-Discrimination Law.
Companies have five days to confirm full compliance in English and submit the signed document via email. If they refuse, they are asked to provide “a detailed justification” to be forwarded to U.S. legal authorities.
A New Transatlantic Conflict – Not About Tariffs, But About Values
What appears to be a bureaucratic measure is, in truth, an assault on Europe’s political and social identity. This is not trade policy – it is the raw export of an American culture war, rebranded as legal compliance, and it strikes at the moral infrastructure of Western democracies.
In recent years, European companies have introduced DEI programs under public pressure and growing regulatory expectations. Now, the U.S. government is branding these efforts as “illegal discrimination.”
Under Trump, the language of equality has been twisted into the language of ideology—and now France is being told to silence its commitment to inclusion. The response in European boardrooms: uncertainty, concern, and in some cases, quiet anger. Beneath the legal formality lies a clear political message:
America tolerates no diversity—not even on foreign soil, not when U.S. contracts are at stake.
The Return of the Old America
Executive Order 14173 is not just a bureaucratic directive—it is a manifesto of rollback. It seeks to dismantle the progress made during the Obama years, undoing gains in representation, diversity, and social equity—not through fire and fury but with clauses, deadlines, and signatures.
What was once a moral imperative is now framed as ideological deviation. Companies that champion DEI risk being blacklisted from federal contracts. The meaning of “discrimination” itself has been redefined: not the exclusion of minorities, but the intention to support them.
Europe Watches – And Says Nothing?
The fact that the U.S. Embassy in Paris would deliver this message without any diplomatic softening makes one thing clear: Trump is not interested in discretion. The message to Europe is simple:
Comply or lose.
The culture war is no longer a domestic American issue. It has become a global doctrine, and those who refuse to bend will be cut off.
European Companies Still Hold the Line—For Now
While the United States begins to criminalize diversity, Europe still holds on—barely: In Sweden (89%), France (82%), and the Netherlands (85%), over four-fifths of large companies have adopted DEI strategies.
Inclusion remains part of corporate identity even in Germany (75%) and Belgium (78%). But these numbers are fragile, especially under the weight of transatlantic pressure. Today’s program for fairness may soon be recast as political defiance. And when economic dependency becomes moral surrender, diversity becomes a liability—and equality, a bargaining chip.
Now Europe Must Act
Europe must act—not out of vanity, but out of survival. If it continues to remain silent, the American culture war will not merely cross borders; it will embed itself into the fine print of global contracts.
What today arrives as an email to a French defense contractor could tomorrow be a clause buried in an EU-wide trade agreement. A continent called the cradle of human rights cannot allow its markets to become vessels for imported dogma.
A society forced to unlearn diversity will soon forget what freedom means.
