WASHINGTON (TNND) — One of President Donald Trump's first executive orders when entering office in January was aimed at his efforts to end Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the federal government.

White House Senior Policy Strategist May Mailman spoke to The National News Desk's Kayla Gaskins about President Trump's efforts to end DEI and race-based practices.

We asked Mailman about the city of Chicago, where last month, Mayor Brandon Johnson threatened to sue the Trump administration if it followed through on a threat to withhold federal education funding over DEI efforts.

"I think there's a thousand things wrong with the way that Chicago has been run. It's a failing city that has tremendous crime. It's not educating its students, it's falling behind," Mailman said. "On top of it, it appears as though the mayor is hiring on the basis not of who's gonna improve the schools, not on, uh, who's gonna be the most efficient for the taxpayers, not on who's gonna clean up the streets, who's gonna reduce crime, but based on race. And so the people of Chicago deserve by law to be treated equally on the basis of race, but more than that, they deserve a government that works for them."

When a government is over-committed to skin color and less committed to providing the services of Chicago residents, then yeah, that's a problem," Mailman explained.

During Trump's first 100 days in office, the administration's crackdown on DEI in the government was full steam ahead, also targeting education systems that receive federal funds. Mailman explained what we can expect from the President on this topic moving forward.

I think this is gonna be a legacy item for President Trump. So not only, as you mentioned in the federal government, did we cut billions of dollars of funding that went toward racial programs, including programs that required quotas, things like that. And such things like studying men, menstruating men, like really ridiculous grants that were totally rooted in woke ideology and not actually in improving the lives of Americans. So that has come to an end."

Mailman said the administration plans to focus on places in society where racism is "so deeply rooted."

"Let's just take, for example, law firms. Law firms have been notorious for hiring on the basis of race. They had entire programs that were simply race-based. You were not able to actually work in the law firm as a first-year summer associate unless you fit one of the approved skin colors, even, you know, being a female doesn't count," Mailman said.

When law firms are the gatekeepers for the law, the people who become your lawyers, that shapes the justice system. The justice system shapes everything that we experience. Same with schools. If schools are hiring or admitting students on the basis of race, that shapes who the next generation of leaders are gonna be."

Mailman said this shapes who has an opportunity and who doesn't, noting race-based admissions in universities, like the University of North Carolina.

When these details came out in the Supreme Court case a couple of years ago, they had considered doing an underprivileged type of admissions program where it was basically your socioeconomic status. And they rejected it because it would let in too many white students. So they said, no, no, no. We're not gonna actually care about you overcoming your circumstances coming up in poor, corrupt backgrounds because you'd be the wrong skin color. So rooting out nefarious racism in these key institutions in our society will continue to be a focus for the Trump administration."

Mailman said that while the beginning of the administration contained a lot of executive orders, now she expects Americans will see implementation.

"We've set our standard of what it is that we're out to do, and I think now you're gonna see a lot of implementation. And you know, universities, I think, are so tired of being so tied to their left flank that they had to take down SAT tests. Things like this. SAT tests are actually for the benefit of the student because if you are as a student are not able to cut it, you end up wasting thousands and thousands of dollars your freshman year. And you, you don't make it," Mailman explained.

Either that, or you do make it all four years, but you can't get hired and you can't pay off your student loans. So things like this that universities actually like and that students actually need, universities are very excited to put those things back in place. And if they need a little nudge from us, then so be it."

Gaskins asked Mailman about the administration's current investigation of Harvard, resulting from antisemitic protests on campus.

"If Harvard was smart, then they absolutely would change their posture and say, you know what? We do have rampant antisemitism on campus. We have so much racism in our admissions process that the Supreme Court had to tell us to stop. We acknowledge those things and we wanna change, but unfortunately, I think Harvard leadership at the very, very top, Penny Pritzker, is so committed to opposing President Trump rather than what's right."

Mailman said she believes there will have to be a leadership change at the school for them to begin having a positive relationship with the administration, students and applicants.

We also asked Mailman about companies rolling back their DEI practice, like Costco and Starbucks, and if the administration would get involved there.

"So Title VII was passed during the Civil Rights Act, and it says that you can't discriminate on the basis of race in hiring, promotions, employment activity. And if companies like Starbucks and like Costco are violating Title VII, then the way that that looks is the EEOC, the Equal Employment Opportunity Council, first takes a look. And then they can bring charges," Mailmain said.