The Coast Guard has eliminated race-based standards in its service, following a broader Trump administration trend being enforced throughout the military to adhere more to “merit” than diversity, equity or inclusion (DEI).
On May 29, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that the service eliminated race-based preferences for college students who wish to enlist and commission as Coast Guard officers. It focused on one particular program called the College Student Pre-Commissioning Initiative (CSPI), which includes a preference for students from educational institutions that meet certain quotas for specifically identified racial groups in their student bodies.
Officials have correlated the move directly to what DHS called requirements “in stark contrast to the Trump Administration’s focus on fairness, merit, and eliminating DEI policies throughout the federal government.” Such previous standards also violated the equal protection requirements of the U.S. Constitution, DHS added. The termination of the requirements occurred on May 28.
“The Trump Administration is more focused than ever on eliminating unconstitutional DEI policies like this one,” said DHS General Counsel James Percival in a statement. “Racial quotas, like those included in this program for students who want to enlist and commission as officers in the U.S. Coast Guard, are a direct violation of the United States Constitution’s equal protection requirements.
“By getting rid of these unconstitutional diversity quotas, we are returning the Coast Guard’s focus to military readiness, upholding the law, and making America a safer place.”
Military.com reached out for comment to the Coast Guard and DHS.
What is the College Student Pre-Commissioning Initiative?
The College Student Pre-Commissioning Initiative, or CSPI, is defined by the Coast Guard as a scholarship program for motivated college juniors and seniors who demonstrate academic and leadership excellence and a desire to serve in the Coast Guard.
CSPI scholars ultimately become active-duty Coast Guard members with the rank of officer trainee and receive the military benefits of the E-3 pay grade, including salary and health care. They are assigned to a university where they complete their degrees as a full-time student with tuition, books, and fees paid annually.
A previous requirement of the program stipulated that applicants must be sophomores or juniors at a federally designated Minority Serving Institution (MSI).
The Coast Guard application cites the following eligible types of minority serving institutions that “must meet the federal definition.” To support their training, schools are supposed to be located within 100 miles of a Coast Guard unit or recruiting office. The list of institutions is as follows:
- Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)
- Predominantly Black Institutions (PBI)
- Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI)
- Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISI)
- Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCU)
- Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions (ANNHI)
- Native American Non-Tribal Institutions (NANTI)
“Eliminating racial quotas in federal programs remains a priority of the Justice Department,” Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division said in a statement. “Access to opportunities like the Coast Guard’s pre-commissioning initiative should be based exclusively on merit, not the racial composition of your college. This resolution helps ensure that equality of opportunity.”
Pentagon Push for ‘Merit’ Over DEI
There may be no more glaring epicenter of the Trump administration’s views towards DEI than within the Pentagon.
It was one of the earliest points of emphasis less than 10 days into the second Trump term, with the Department of Defense—which later changed its name to the Department of War under Secretary Pete Hegseth—announcing Jan. 29, 2025 that “a foundational tenet of the DOD must always be that the most qualified individuals are placed in positions of responsibility in accordance with merit-based, color-blind policies.”
“The DoD mission is to win the nation’s wars,” said the directive, piggybacking on Trump’s executive order issued on Jan. 27, 2025. “To do this, we must have a lethal fighting force that rewards individual initiative, excellence, and hard work based on merit. … The DOD will strive to provide merit-based, color-blind, equal opportunities to Service members but will not guarantee or strive for equal outcomes.”
That ideological shift included the creation of the “Restoring America’s Fighting Force” Task Force “charged with overseeing the department’s efforts to abolish DEI offices and any vestiges of such offices that subvert meritocracy, perpetuate unconstitutional discrimination, and promote radical ideologies related to systemic racism and gender fluidity.”
Those efforts have persisted roughly 1 1/2 years later. Hegseth, while delivering the commencement address May 23 at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, referenced “feckless and foolish leaders” instilling identity politics across the armed forces. He also scrutinized “woke and weak leaders,” tying such unnamed individuals to what he believes has corrupted his alma mater, “woke Princeton.”
“The battlefield does not grade on a curve, and you can’t throw your pronouns at the enemy,” Hegseth told cadets during a rainy ceremony. “Combat is the ultimate test, and our best Americans must ace it. … They embraced the DEI craze and tried to introduce diversity and inclusion studies. They hired professors who advocated for anti-American ideologies right here in these halls, but no more.”
“West Point is set apart. It’s special. It’s above politics. Success here is based on merit. It’s how you perform that matters,” the secretary added.
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