To be honest, the reason it's likely coming up now is that there are a few very vocal senior level employees throughout the federal government that are pushing back very strongly on some efforts that have been ramped up since all these protests started. None of these types of training are new and several are even required by federal law and enforced by the EEOC. It's just that in most cases the bare minimum was done in order to be legally compliant. Since the protests, there's been a push to go beyond just compliance. For instance, the law requires that there be adverse impact studies done for any processes for which there have been complaints about. If an issue is found then it can be addressed. Now, instead of being reactive people are being proactive and doing these studies not only on current process prior to any complaints but doing validation studies before implementing any new practice (which is actually already required by law).
These efforts have upset those few very vocal senior level employees and I'm guessing their whining has now reached the President's office. I'm sure the things he was told were far from the truth as well, if it even matters. They have such a warped perception about these matters that they might as well be living in some kind of fantasy land.
I've even personally talked to some of these people and it's insane how offended they are by efforts to ensure equity and inclusiveness. For example, I created a statistical model using today's hiring practices to show how long it would take for our workforce's minority race/ethnicity population to mirror that of what's expected based on the demographics of the american population in those work-roles. For one, most of them don't even understand the math behind it and have outright claimed it's all made up just so we hire less white people. Then another was offended that it focused only on minority race/ethnicity and not didn't include white people. Even though the entire purpose of the model is to display how it would take literally decades for us to match the demographics of the US with our current practice that has adverse impact against minorities. He also failed to understand that there's no reason to show white people because it's the literal complementary group. If it's too low for minorities then it's too high for white people and vice/versa.
The absolute worst part about this is how many people have already used Trump's position as a "told you so" directly to our face that we've been acting racist ourselves. It's empowered them beyond belief and I seriously expect a huge backlash within the federal workforce. We're going to lose a tremendous amount of talent during an extremely difficult time.