By: Anthony Morelli
The ATF clearly is very upset about the new administration.
But that doesn’t give them a right to disobey their boss.
And Donald Trump was not happy to find out what they did.
There is no question that most agents at the ATF would prefer a Democrat administration over a Republican one, considering the parties’ widely differing views on gun control.
But every agency has a duty to follow the orders of the duly elected president of the United States, as they are not elected and have no right to act unilaterally.
That is apparently becoming a problem in the early days of the Trump administration with the ATF.
They were ordered to terminate all DEI positions, which refers to the controversial “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” initiatives which have become a left-wing corporate fad.
However, instead of terminating one of their DEI leaders, they simply reassigned her, something the Trump administration quickly took notice of and responded to.
And while this doesn’t directly have to do with guns, it should raise concern that the ATF would do something similar if the administration ordered them to stop their gun control activities.
According to the Daily Mail, “The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives appeared to try and avoid Donald Trump‘s anti-DEI executive order by switching the job title of its Chief Diversity Officer.
“On Tuesday, Trump’s administration ordered federal agencies to place all Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) hires on paid leave pending review and warned authorities not to use ‘coded or imprecise language’ to circumvent the move.
“But within a day of the order being announced, eagle-eyed online sleuths noticed the ATF’s Chief Diversity Officer Lisa T. Boykin had a new job title, appearing to have been updated to ‘Senior Executive.’”
This is a direct act of rebellion against the clear language of the order that their boss, the president, gave to them.
In any private sector setting, this kind of rebellious act would lead to firing, although it remains to be seen if the same thing applies to a government position.
The article continues, “Monday’s order was one of a raft of executive orders Trump moved quickly on, also including withdrawing the US from the World Health Organization, ordering all federal employees return to in-person work, and rescinding 78 Biden-era executive orders.”
“In a memo issued by the White House on Tuesday night, the Trump administration claimed progress made by the passage of civil rights legislation decades ago had been lost to DEI programs.”
If gun owners get their way, Trump will soon act to end the ATF’s crackdown on guns throughout America, something that has led to the deaths of people like Bryan Malinowski.
But if Trump does that, he is going to expect that the ATF will obey him instead of rebelling and refusing to obey his directives.
However, this latest DEI incident raises significant concern that the ATF may simply turn into a rogue agency that wants to act as a government all to itself.