DEI-obsessed Coast Guard commandant fired on Trump's first day
A high-ranking federal official obsessed with diversity, equity, and inclusion is out of a job now that President Donald Trump is back in office.
On Monday, Trump took the oath of office for the second time in eight years and almost immediately got to work implementing his campaign promises, one of which was to eradicate DEI and other leftist ideologies that have lately overtaken federal agencies.
One of his first attempts at reducing the DEI footprint was apparently to remove Adm. Linda Fagan as the commandant of the Coast Guard. Fox News, which spoke with a senior official from the Department of Homeland Security, first reported Fagan's ouster one minute after midnight on Tuesday, indicating she was fired within hours of Trump's inauguration.
'Diverse work teams out-perform non-diverse work teams.'
Leftist outlets and politicians have since bewailed the firing of Fagan, the first female leader of a military service. The Hill seemed irked that the Trump administration offered "no explanation" for the move while Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) called it an "abuse of power," even though the commandant of the Coast Guard serves at the pleasure of the president.
Aside from the fact that the president does not need to justify firing her, Fagan apparently failed miserably to do the job. The accusations against Fagan listed in the Fox News report are manifold:
- failing to address threats to border security;
- missing recruitment and retention goals;
- inadequately equipping Coast Guard stations in the Arctic and other key regions;
- mishandling Operation Fouled Anchor, an investigation into the cover-up of sexual misconduct at the Coast Guard Academy, leading to an "erosion of trust"; and
- excessive focus on DEI.
Fagan, 61, has frequently defended the importance of "diversity" at the Coast Guard since former President Joe Biden nominated her to lead the branch in June 2022. For example, at the Smart Women, Smart Power Initiative in Washington, D.C., in April 2023, Fagan insisted that "diverse work teams matter."
"Diverse work teams out-perform non-diverse work teams. And so this, you know, is also about readiness and resiliency of the force," she continued.
Fagan then expanded the definition of diversity beyond just "gender and ethnicity." "It’s everything that makes each of us different and unique, because it brings — it brings strength and resiliency to the team in a really key way," she said at the initiative.
In addition to her support for DEI, Fagan also seems to support permitting gender-confused individuals in the military, decrying any "artificial barrier" to service.
"There are standards for service in the organization. You need to meet those standards, right? ... You [have] got to have a certain level of fitness to graduate from boot camp," she told Breaking Defense last month. "And bringing anyone who has a propensity to serve that meets those standards makes for a more ready, more resilient workplace and work teams."
In a message to all Coast Guard members announcing her departure, acting Secretary of Homeland Security Benjamine Huffman claimed Fagan, who attended the academy in the early 1980s, "served a long and illustrious career."
Adm. Kevin Lunday, the former vice commandant of the Coast Guard, has since been appointed to take Fagan's place on an apparently interim basis.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!