Trump moves to cancel government contracts

President Donald Trump has directed administration officials to make significant changes to sensitivity training sessions across the government, calling such efforts that often focus on promoting awareness of racism “divisive” and “un-american propaganda.”

The directive was laid out Friday afternoon in a memo from the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell T. Vought, to executive branch agency heads.

The brief memo — which repeatedly referred to “press reports,” not government documents — tells the agencies to “begin to identify all contracts or other agency spending related to any training on ‘critical race theory,’ ‘white privilege,’ or any other training or propaganda effort that teaches or suggests either (1) that the United States is an inherently racist or evil country or (2) that any race or ethnicity is inherently racist or evil.”

The memo comes at a time of a national discussion about race, in which Trump has been firmly against systemic changes in policing and government.

The president has been a vocal opponent of the Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality that have been held across the nation since late May, calling the movement a “symbol of hate.” He has criticized socalled cancel culture, defended the Confederate flag and military bases named for Confederate generals and accused people of trying to “erase” American history.

“It has come to the president’s attention that executive branch agencies have spent millions of taxpayer dollars to date ‘training’ government workers to believe divisive, anti-american propaganda,” Vought wrote.

“For example, according to press reports, employees across the executive branch have been required to attend trainings where they are told that ‘virtually all white people contribute to racism’ or where they are required to say that they ‘benefit from racism,’” he wrote.