The Man Who Killed D.E.I.—How Chris Rufo Made ‘Woke’ a Dirty Word

Trump Wasn't the Mastermind; He Was Just the Muscle Behind the Movement

Last night, at his first joint session address since returning to the White House, Donald Trump stood at the podium, basking in the applause of his loyalists, and declared with triumph: "We've ended the tyranny of so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion policies all across the entire federal government, and indeed the private sector, and our military. And our country will be woke no longer."

Of course, it’s laughable to think that Trump, a man whose attention span rarely outlasts a cable news segment, conceptualized any of this himself.

No, the elimination of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) programs was not just a policy shift; it was a cultural victory engineered by someone far more strategic than him. Behind this seismic change is a man most Americans have never heard of: Christopher Rufo. If Trump is the executioner of DEI, Rufo is the architect of its downfall.

The Man Who Found the Perfect Villain

Christopher Rufo did not start as a conservative culture warrior. Raised in Sacramento by Italian immigrant parents, Rufo built a career as a documentary filmmaker, working on projects about poverty and social issues. But over time, he became convinced that systemic inequality was less about government policy and more about "social, familial, even psychological" factors. By 2018, he had repositioned himself as a rising voice on the right, focusing on homelessness in Seattle.

Then, in 2020, Rufo struck political gold. A Seattle city employee leaked training documents from an anti-bias program that framed individualism and objectivity as traits of white supremacy. Sensing an opportunity, Rufo publicized the material in the conservative City Journal and appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight to sound the alarm on what he dubbed an existential threat to America: Critical Race Theory (CRT).

The next morning, Trump's chief of staff called Rufo. Within weeks, the White House issued an executive order banning "divisive" racial sensitivity training in federal agencies.

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From CRT to DEI: Expanding the Battlefield

Rufo knew he had found a potent political weapon. "‘Political correctness’ is a dated term. ‘Cancel culture’ is too vague. But ‘Critical Race Theory’—it’s the perfect villain," he later wrote. By linking progressive anti-racism efforts to an obscure academic theory with radical roots, Rufo reframed the debate entirely. It was no longer about addressing racism; it was about stopping a Marxist takeover.

But CRT was only the beginning. As Rufo’s influence grew, he expanded his target to DEI. His message was simple: these programs were not about fairness—they were about ideological control, race-based hiring, and government overreach. And in Trump’s second term, with Rufo advising Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and shaping national policy, the federal government became ground zero for dismantling DEI.

Rufo’s approach was strategic. In a now-infamous 2021 tweet, he laid it out explicitly: "The goal is to have the public read something crazy in the newspaper and immediately think ‘critical race theory.’ We have decodified the term and will recodify it to annex the entire range of cultural constructions that are unpopular with Americans." Rufo didn’t just attack CRT or DEI on their merits; he sought to turn them into all-encompassing boogeymen, ensuring that any progressive policy associated with race, gender, or equity was viewed as dangerous, extremist, and anti-American.

Through relentless media appearances, op-eds, and policy proposals, Rufo achieved this transformation. He reframed once-technical academic discussions as a cultural crisis, pushing the idea that DEI initiatives were an extension of radical leftist ideology seeking to dismantle American institutions from within. He succeeded in making DEI so politically toxic that even corporations and universities, traditionally reluctant to wade into partisan battles, began backtracking on their commitments.

The “Woke Right’s” New Culture War

Trump’s speech last night cemented the shift. The right is dictating new cultural norms. The administration has not only eliminated DEI policies but also scrubbed keywords from federal documents: equity, intersectionality, multicultural, and oppression are now on the government’s unofficial blacklist.

This shift represents the rise of what some have termed the "Woke Right." Initially used to criticize Republicans perceived as too progressive, the term has since been weaponized to describe a faction of conservatives who, ironically, have adopted some of the very tactics they claim to oppose. Just as the right has long accused progressives of weaponizing identity politics, enforcing ideological purity, and embracing a sense of collective victimhood, figures like Christopher Rufo have led an effort to fight back using eerily similar methods.

Rufo, now a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, has played a key role in shaping these policies. He advised on Florida’s "Stop WOKE" Act and helped draft model legislation that other states have followed. His influence has spurred mass book bans, the defunding of DEI initiatives, and aggressive scrutiny of corporate diversity programs. DEI, once seen as an unquestioned fixture of corporate and government hiring, has been reframed as a political liability. They are installing a new ideological framework, one that claims to be a restoration of traditional values but often looks like its own brand of top-down cultural enforcement. Whether this movement is a necessary correction or simply a new iteration of the culture war’s endless cycle of escalation depends on who you ask.

The Future After DEI

Trump’s administration has promised to take the fight further. Federal contractors will face scrutiny over their hiring practices. University DEI offices will be defunded. The military has already undergone a leadership shakeup, with high-ranking officers dismissed under suspicion of being "DEI hires."

For Rufo, this is just the beginning. As he told The New Yorker, his goal is "to politicize the bureaucracy"—to make federal agencies battlegrounds in the culture war. In this, he has succeeded beyond even his own expectations.

The man who killed DEI is not a president, senator, or judge. He is a former documentarian turned conservative strategist, who saw an opening in America’s racial reckoning and seized it. And with Trump’s second term now in full force, Rufo’s vision of a post-woke America is becoming reality.

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References

1. Beauchamp, Zack. “Chris Rufo’s Dangerous Fictions.” Vox, September 10, 2023.

2. Doyle, Andrew. “What Is ‘The Woke Right’?” Substack, November 28, 2024.

3. Engel, C. Jay. “Is There a Woke Right?” American Reformer, May 28, 2024.

4. Kelefa, Sanneh. “How Christopher Rufo Became the Right’s Anti-Woke Warrior.” The New Yorker, June 19, 2023.

5. Thomas Chatterton Williams, "How the Woke Right Replaced the Woke Left: The Hypocrisy of Trump’s Language Wars," The Atlantic, February 17, 2025.

6. Zachary B. Wolf and Curt Merrill, "Trump's 2025 Joint Session Address, Fact-Checked and Annotated," CNN, March 5, 2025.