President Trump and other authorities within the MAGA Movement routinely argue that DEI programs amount to “anti‑white” or “anti‑male” discrimination and that they especially hurt white men in hiring, promotions, contracting, and college admissions. As a result, the administration has rolled back DEI in government hiring and is pressuring companies and universities to do the same.
In January 2025, Trump signed executive orders ending most federal DEI/DEIA programs and framing them as “illegal discrimination” and “race‑ and sex‑based preferences,” saying they undermine merit and violate the civil rights of groups, including white men. Agencies were ordered to shut DEI offices, review programs, and identify “egregious” DEI practices in the private sector for potential enforcement.
Let’s fast forward to December 2025.
A new Washington Post analysis warns that Trump’s dismantling of DEI infrastructure in higher education and government is – not so shockingly – likely to backfire on the very White, non-elite men he claims to champion, especially college men.
Wait, what?
In the U.S. and many other countries, women now make up a clear majority of college students and college graduates, and the gap has been widening for decades. For instance, in U.S. undergraduate programs in fall 2021, about 58% of students were women (8.9 million) and 42% were men (6.5 million).
So, how does this impact white men?
Initially reported by The Washington Post, Brown University, one of the most competitive universities in America, accepted roughly the same number of male and female applicants last year, even though the number of female applicants nearly doubled male applicants. Hence, 7% of male applicants were accepted versus 4.4% of female applicants, according to the data provided by the school.
Colleges often try to keep enrollment relatively equal between the genders, so a bunch of Brown University men, mostly White men, undoubtedly received a little extra (DEI) help in enrollment last year, thanks to the school’s efforts to maintain some semblance of gender diversity.
Across the board, men are simply not keeping pace with their female contemporaries.
And that’s why experts in higher education and college admissions warn that the Trump Administration’s policies could now be leveraged to reduce the advantage that men currently hold in the college admissions process at several universities.”
| School | % of males admitted | % of females admitted |
| Brown University | 7.0 | 4.4 |
| University of Chicago | 5.6 | 3.7 |
| Yale University | 4.6 | 3.4 |
| University of Miami | 22.5 | 16.5 |
| Middlebury College | 12.2 | 9.6 |
| Baylor University | 56.8 | 47.9 |
| Pomona College | 7.6 | 6.7 |
| Tulane University | 14.9 | 13.4 |
| Vassar College | 20.4 | 17.6 |
SOURCE: Hechinger Report calculations from universities’ Common Data Sets
“The racial parts have gotten a lot more attention, but I know from having spoken with practitioners who work in college admissions, they have read very clearly that it says ‘race and gender’” in the administration’s pronouncements about ending preferences in admission, said Shaun Harper, founder and chief research scientist at the University of Southern California’s Race and Equity Center.
“What I think they don’t understand is that taking away the ability of colleges and universities to balance the gender composition of their incoming classes will ultimately have an impact on the college enrollment rates of White males. It is likely to impact them the most, as a matter of fact,” Harper said.
Men dominated college enrollment through the mid‑20th century; in 1970 they held about 58% of U.S. college seats.
And that’s true. A lot of white men are getting accepted at exclusive schools because those institutions are trying to maintain an equal balance of men and women.
What diverse college wants a freshman class that’s 75 percent women? People will think you have an anti-male agenda when, in reality, you’re simply accepting the top applicants.
“For the Browns and Columbias and highly selective and very competitive institutions, [gender imbalance] is a problem,” said Madeleine Rhyneer, who headed admissions offices at four private universities and colleges and is now vice president of consulting services and dean of enrollment management for the education consulting firm EAB.
“They want to create what feels like a balanced climate.”
Of course they would.
“This drips with irony,” said Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education. “The idea of males, including White males, being at the short end of the stick all of a sudden would be a truly ironic outcome.”
So, what would happen if colleges eliminated enrollment preferences for men?
“If we were going to eliminate preferences for men, the undergraduate population would skew to 65 percent female overnight,” said ACE’s Mitchell, who was undersecretary of education under President Barack Obama.
Prediction
Look for the Trump Administration to advocate gender-related DEI policies where White men benefit. But, it won’t happen in 2026 because it’ll take a while for them to learn that women are starting to dominate in education.
Prediction
Expect this phenomenon to trickle into the business world. And, yes, expect there to be a DEI policy that promotes the hiring of White men, because, based on the college data, they will need it to keep up with White women. And businesses will enforce those policies in an effort to remain diverse.
Women are already out-earning men in the 20-29 demographic in several large cities and are poised to assume more leadership roles in the workplace with each passing year.
