The First 100 Days: President Trump’s Federal Policy Revamp and New Compliance Concerns for Employers

Quick Hits

• During the first one hundred days of his second term, President Trump implemented a series of executive orders to reshape employer obligations and compliance programs across various sectors, including artificial intelligence, higher education, and DEI programs.
• Key actions include rescinding previous AI safeguards and eliminating DEI programs, which have impacted and will continue to impact the legal landscape for employers.

In total, President Trump has signed 143 executive orders since January 20, 2025, in addition to other announcements, proclamations, and guidance. President Trump has also appointed many key agency leaders and removed sitting members of independent agencies responsible for labor and employment issues. The actions have had a widespread impact, reshaping federal policy in several areas relevant to employers. Still, many actions face legal challenges, and court orders have blocked some EOs on numerous procedural, statutory, and constitutional grounds.

An overview of some of President Trump’s most consequential actions and policy changes concerning employers during his first one hundred days will help employers navigate these seismic changes.

Artificial Intelligence

Almost immediately upon taking office, President Trump began reshaping U.S. policy around the development and use of AI. First, President Trump rescinded a Biden administration EO that had called for establishing safeguards for workers and consumers amid concerns with potential fraud or discrimination and privacy risks. President Trump also tapped investor and former tech executive David Sacks as the newly created “White House AI & Crypto Czar.”

Then, on January 23, 2025, President Trump signed EO 14179, stating “[i]t is the policy of the United States to sustain and enhance America’s global AI dominance in order to promote human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security.” The order directed relevant agencies to develop an action plan to promote the development of AI technology in the United States and directed agencies to review and consider rescinding policies and regulations that may be inconsistent with that policy.

On April 23, 2025, President Trump signed another EO to enhance AI education and workforce development. The order established a cross-agency task force to promote AI education and called for using public-private partnerships to provide resources for AI. The order further directed the secretary of labor to promote registered apprenticeship programs in the AI industry.

Overall, while the Biden administration’s policies sought to balance promoting AI development with safeguarding workers and consumers from potential adverse impacts, the Trump administration is seeking to remove and limit restrictions and is focusing on including technology leaders in setting and implementing the policy. Notably, state laws on AI continue to proliferate.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

The Trump administration has taken a hard stance against DEI programs and initiatives, asserting they are “illegal” and violate federal laws against discrimination.

On his first day in office, President Trump signed EO 14151, which directs federal government agencies to end all illegal DEI mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in the federal government. It also eliminates DEI performance requirements for federal employees, contractors, or grantees. He also signed EO 14173, which terminates several prior executive actions to promote DEI in the federal government and orders the development of “appropriate measures to encourage the private sector to end illegal discrimination and preferences, including DEI.” It rescinded a longstanding order, Executive Order 11246, which required federal contractors and subcontractors to take affirmative action steps to prevent employment discrimination.

President Trump also signed EO 14168, which established that the federal government will only recognize two sexes, male and female, taking the position that gender is binary and immutable. The EEOC removed the option in employer EEO-1 reporting for 2025 to report nonbinary employees in their employee counts.

However, the EOs face multiple legal challenges alleging they are vague, violate the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and due process, or are otherwise unlawfully issued. Some EOs are already enjoined in whole or in part.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) under Acting Chair Andrea Lucas, whom President Trump nominated for a second term at the EEOC, has rolled back much of the EEOC’s Biden-era guidance related to issues of gender identity discrimination and harassment against LGBTQ+ individuals and signaled her intent to roll back voted-upon guidance once a quorum exists at the EEOC. Further, the EEOC has issued two technical assistance documents explaining what the Trump administration considers to be “illegal” DEI in the workplace.

Notably, on April 23, 2025, President Trump signed an EO to instruct federal agencies to stop using disparate impact theory under federal antidiscrimination law. The order is likely to face legal challenges.

Federal Contractor Affirmative Action Compliance

On January 21, 2025, President Donald Trump signed EO 14173, which seeks to end “illegal” DEI programs. Specifically, the order revoked the longstanding EO 11246, which had prohibited discrimination by federal contractors based on race, color, religion, and national origin, and it stripped the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) of much of its authority to enforce federal contractors’ compliance with federal laws and regulations requiring nondiscrimination. The order also required organizations doing business with the government to certify that they do not have any DEI programs that are unlawful under federal antidiscrimination laws, under threat of potential liability under the False Claims Act (FCA).

However, EO 14173 and the certification provision have been challenged in court. In February 2025, a federal judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland issued a nationwide preliminary injunction blocking key parts of EO 14173. Still, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals later stayed that injunction. Further, a federal judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois temporarily blocked the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) from enforcing the certification requirement against the plaintiff in that case or terminating certain of the plaintiff’s federal grants.

OFCCP has also been targeted in the federal workforce cuts. In early April, Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer renewed offers of deferred resignation and voluntary early retirement to OFCCP personnel, after initially offering them in January 2025. The move came after the DOL, in February 2025, proposed restructuring OFCCP, before the appointment of Catherine Eschbach as the OFCCP’s new director on March 24, 2025.

Higher Education

President Trump has also sought to downsize the U.S. Department of Education, stop schools and universities from promoting DEI, and remove protections for transgender students and school athletes under Title IX of the Education Amendments.

On March 20, 2025, President Trump signed EO 14242, directing Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure” of the Education Department “to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law.”

On February 14, 2025, the Education Department issued a “Dear Colleague Letter” (DCL) that threatened schools with a loss of federal funding if they continued DEI programs, asserting such programs are discriminatory. The department followed up with a frequently asked questions (FAQ) document, clarifying the department’s interpretation of the meaning of the Supreme Court of the United States’ 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College (SFFA), which struck down affirmative action in college admissions. However, on April 24, 2025, three federal district court judges issued rulings blocking parts of the “Dear Colleague Letter” and attempts to eliminate DEI in schools.

In addition, the Trump administration has threatened to revoke federal funding to colleges and universities over their responses to campus protests during the last two years and over alleged continuation of DEI programs. At the same time, President Trump has sought to increase private sector support for education, notably through two executive orders signed on April 23, 2025, to support Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and increase AI literacy in education.

Aligning with President Trump’s EO 14168 on gender identity, the Education Department announced on January 31, 2025, in a separate “Dear Colleague Letter,” that it will enforce Title IX under prior regulations adopted during Trump’s first term. The move bypasses the Biden-era rule that expanded prohibited sexual harassment to include gender identity, sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, and sexual orientation, and mandated that schools allow students and employees to access facilities, programs, and activities consistent with their self-identified gender.

Further, on February 5, 2025, the president signed EO 14201 to ban transgender athletes from participating in women’s and girls’ school sports, spurring the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) the next day to amend its participation policy accordingly. Moreover, the Education Department in February 2025 rescinded the Biden administration’s last-minute guidance that name, image, and likeness (NIL) payments to college athletes implicate Title IX’s nondiscrimination requirements.

Labor Relations

Perhaps unsurprisingly, President Trump appears poised to shift federal labor from his predecessors’ union-friendly focus and has shaken up leadership at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). In his first weeks in office, President Trump discharged former NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo and removed NLRB member Gwynne Wilcox. The president also removed Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) member Cathy Harris.

The removal of NLRB member Wilcox and MSPB member Harris was unprecedented. It has been challenged in the courts, resulting in back-and-forth rulings on whether they can remain on their respective boards. On April 9, 2025, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts granted a motion to temporarily stay rulings that had reinstated Wilcox and Harris while the justices consider the merits of their cases. The rulings have left the NLRB without a quorum to issue new decisions potentially overruling precedent seen as less employer-friendly.

Additionally, on February 14, 2025, newly named NLRB Acting General Counsel William B. Cowen issued Memorandum GC 25-05, rescinding twenty-nine prior general counsel memoranda, most of which were issued by his predecessor, including memoranda regarding remedies and settlements in labor cases, electronic monitoring for employees, and the Board’s McLaren Macomb decision, which prohibited nondisparagement and confidentiality provisions in severance agreements.

Unfair Competition and Restrictive Covenants

The Trump administration has signaled a more friendly approach to noncompete agreements and restrictive covenants amid broader scrutiny of them and their impact on workers and labor markets. In particular, the new NLRB acting general counsel rescinded two memoranda issued by former general counsel Abruzzo that sought to restrict (1) noncompete agreements in employment contracts and severance agreements and (2) stay-or-pay agreements whereby employees are required to remain employees for a specific period of time or reimburse an employer certain costs.

Additionally, it appears the Trump administration will put a final end to the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Biden-era rule to ban noncompete agreements in employment, which was approved in a 3–2 vote split along party lines. President Trump tapped Commissioner Andrew Ferguson, who voted against the noncompete rule, to replace former FTC chair Lina Khan following her resignation in January 2025. Later, on March 18, 2025, President Trump discharged the two remaining Democratic commissioners, Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, both of whom voted to adopt the noncompete rule.

Further, on March 7, 2025, the Trump administration halted appeals to two rulings blocking the rule by the U.S. District Courts for the Northern District of Texas and the Middle District of Florida, citing a need to reevaluate the rule.

However, on February 26, 2025, FTC Chairman Ferguson formed a new “Joint Labor Task Force” and tasked it with targeting unreasonable noncompete, no-poach, nonsolicitation, and no-hire agreements. The move may indicate the administration is still interested in targeting unreasonable noncompete and restrictive covenants, at least to the extent that they harm labor markets.

Workplace Safety

President Trump has sought to limit the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and other federal workplace safety agencies as part of overall deregulation efforts. Biden-era rulemaking on “Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings” and the “Emergency Response Standard” could be on the chopping block following President Trump’s “Regulatory Freeze Pending Review” issued on January 20, 2025. Further, on April 8, 2025, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) paused the Biden-era mine silica dust rule, “Lowering Miners’ Exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica and Improving Respiratory Protection,” which had an original compliance date of April 14, 2025.

Additionally, the Trump administration’s efforts to increase efficiency with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and downsize the federal workforce are affecting federal workplace safety agencies. The administration is reportedly cutting eleven OSHA field offices and thirty-four MSHA offices and plans to cut approximately 850 of the 1,000 employees at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)—an agency that is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and provides research that informs OSHA policy.

Ogletree Deakins will continue to monitor developments and will provide updates on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Compliance, Government Contracting and Reporting, Governmental Affairs, Higher Education, Technology, Traditional Labor Relations, and Workplace Safety and Health blogs as new information becomes available.

This article and more information on how the Trump administration’s actions impact employers can be found on Ogletree Deakins’ New Administration Resource Hub.

Zachary V. Zagger is senior marketing counsel in Ogletree Deakins’ New York office.

This article was co-authored by Leah J. Shepherd, who is a writer in Ogletree Deakins’ Washington, D.C., office.

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