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All The Major Companies And Orgs Dumping Their DEI Programs (Full List) [1]
['Conor Murray']
Date: 2025-04-11
Topline Tech company IBM and beer brewer Constellation Brands are reportedly among the latest in a wave of corporations retreating from diversity, equity and inclusion policies amid pressure to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive orders gutting DEI and online attacks from conservative influencers. IBM is the latest in a list of companies to walk back DEI policies. (Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto ... More via Getty Images) NurPhoto via Getty Images
Timeline
France, Belgium Object To Trump’s Pressure On Dei Initiatives
American embassies sent letters to foreign contractors, including those in France, Belgium, Denmark, Italy and Spain, directing them to comply with Trump’s DEI orders, prompting pushback from multiple countries. “If contracts were to be terminated solely because a company is committed to diversity and inclusion, this could constitute a violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,” Belgian deputy prime minister Maxime Prévot said in a statement Tuesday, stating the U.S. embassy “must comply with Belgian law in its actions.” “This practice reflects the values of the new American administration. They are not ours,” French economy minister Eric Lombard said in a statement.
Is Target Losing Traffic After Dropping Dei?
Foot traffic at Target has dropped for eight straight weeks, dating back to the company’s announcement at the end of January that it would roll back DEI policies, Retail Brew reported. Retail Brew cited data from Placer.ai, which measures foot traffic, that found traffic year-over-year declined at an average of 6.2% over the past eight weeks. Retail Brew compared the figure to Costco’s foot traffic, which has stood behind its DEI policies, noting the retailer’s foot traffic has grown for 13 straight weeks.
Why Is The Fcc Targeting Disney And Other Companies?
FCC Chair Brendan Carr said last week he would investigate Disney and ABC over their DEI programs, telling company CEO Bob Iger in a letter he would investigate whether the company is “violating FCC equal employment opportunity regulations by promoting invidious forms of DEI discrimination.” Carr threatened in an interview earlier this week ABC could lose its broadcast license if the FCC finds the company was “engaged in race- and gender-based discrimination.” T-Mobile also reportedly pared back DEI language on its website, Fierce Network reported, ahead of closing a deal with fiber provider Lumos. T-Mobile executive vice president Mark Nelson had sent a letter to the FCC last week stating the company is “conducting a comprehensive review of its DEI policies, programs, and activities.” Carr has also opened DEI probes at other companies, including Comcast and Verizon.
Contra
Some companies, including Costco and Apple, have not backed down from their DEI policies. Costco’s shareholders overwhelmingly voted to reject a proposal that would have obligated the company to review the potential risks of maintaining its DEI initiatives, with more than 98% of shareholders voting against the proposal. The board said it “believes that our commitment to an enterprise rooted in respect and inclusion is appropriate and necessary.” Apple’s board similarly urged shareholders to reject a proposal raised by the same think tank, accusing the group of “inappropriately” attempting to “restrict Apple's ability to manage its own ordinary business operations”—prompting Trump to slam Apple and call DEI a “hoax” on Truth Social. Delta Airlines also said it remains committed to DEI on a Jan. 10 earnings call. Peter Carter, the company’s executive vice president for external affairs, told a reporter the company is not reevaluating DEI or sustainability policies because “they are actually critical to our business,” stating DEI is “about talent and that's been our focus.” Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins told Axios “a diverse workforce is better” because “there’s too much business value.” Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing said at a press conference the company stands “firmly behind” its “integral” DEI programs, stating the company can “see how Deutsche Bank has benefited from it.” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said at a press conference ahead of Super Bowl LIX the NFL—which requires teams to interview at least two minority candidates for vacant head coach, general manager and coordinator positions as part of its broader commitment to diversity—will continue its diversity efforts “because we’ve not only convinced ourselves, I think we’ve proven ... that it does make the NFL better.” Coca-Cola warned in an annual filing that abandoning DEI could hurt business, stating its diverse employee base “helps drive a culture of inclusion, innovation and growth,” and if the company’s employees don’t reflect the “broad range of consumers and markets we serve around the world, our business could be negatively affected.”
How Are Trump’s Department Of Justice And Pam Bondi Targeting Dei?
Shortly after being sworn in, Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memo to Justice Department staff stating the department will “investigate, eliminate, and penalize illegal DEI and DEIA preferences” at private companies and universities that receive federal funds. She urged the department to enforce federal civil rights laws to push private companies to roll back DEI, and cited the Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard Supreme Court case, which ended affirmative action, as cause for eliminating DEI at universities.
What Has Trump Said About Dei Programs?
In an executive order issued on the first day of his second term, President Donald Trump ordered the elimination of diversity, equity and inclusion programs within the federal government—but it has also threatens to punish some private entities, like public companies, non-profits and universities, that use them. In his executive order, Trump slammed the “infiltration” of the federal government with DEI programs, citing an executive order former President Joe Biden issued on his first day in office that directed federal agencies to address racial inequities. Trump’s executive order directs federal government agencies to no longer consider diversity in hiring and revise employee training programs to gut DEI training. The order also demands the elimination of “environmental justice” offices and positions in federal agencies. During his inaugural address, Trump vowed he would “end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life,” stating he would “forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based.” Trump also signed an executive order eliminating DEI offices and policies within the military, Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security, which he considered to be “race-based and sex-based discrimination,” and in a separate executive order, effectively reinstated his 2017 ban on transgender troops, banning “identification-based pronoun usage” and prohibiting troops assigned male at birth from using women’s bathing or sleeping facilities.
What Did Ceos—and Trump—say About Dei At Davos?
Several business leaders addressed diversity, equity and inclusion at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, while Trump railed against it in his speech. In his address, Trump said his administration is moving to “abolish all discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion nonsense” in both the government and the private sector, and said the United States will become a “merit-based country.” But some CEOs who attended the forum this week defended the practice, CNBC reported, including JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who said his company will “continue to reach out to the Black community and Hispanic community, LGBT community, and the veteran community.”
What Is The National Center For Public Policy Research?
A conservative think tank, the group pushes shareholder resolutions at many companies that would roll back corporate DEI and environmental regulations. The group launched its Free Enterprise Project in 2007 to combat what it calls the “woke takeover of American corporate life” through these proposals. Apple previously rebuffed the National Center for Public Policy Research in 2014, when shareholders rejected a resolution that would have forced the company to disclose more about the cost effectiveness of its investments to combat climate change. Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly became visibly angry at the company’s annual meeting when a NCPPR representative asked him questions, stating the company considers more than just profitability when it invests in environmental causes. “If you want me to do things only for [return on investment] reasons, you should get out of this stock,” Cook said.
Why Are Dei Policies Under Attack?
Diversity, equity and inclusion policies—which can include employer-mandated diversity trainings, resource groups for underrepresented minorities and commitments to equity in hiring—swept corporate America after the 2020 police killing of George Floyd. But recently, these programs have faced legal and political challenges and a wave of backlash from conservative critics and free speech advocates, who consider DEI policies racist and “woke.” Billionaires Bill Ackman and Elon Musk are among the anti-DEI crusade’s most outspoken advocates. Ackman became DEI’s fiercest crusader last year when he pushed for the eventual resignation of former Harvard University President Claudine Gay after her remarks to Congress about antisemitism on campus following the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel were widely criticized. Ackman, in an essay slamming DEI, claimed he had learned Gay was hired through a Harvard presidential search process that primarily considered candidates who met certain diversity criteria, though a Harvard spokesman said DEI officers had no hiring authority. Many Republican-controlled state legislatures took action against DEI in 2024, with several states, including Alabama, Iowa and Utah banning DEI at public colleges and universities. The wave of conservative backlash against companies deemed “woke” picked up significant steam in 2023 when Bud Light became the target of a conservative boycott after it briefly collaborated with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney for a marketing promotion. The boycott tanked the beer brand’s sales and unleashed a wave of smaller copycat boycotts against companies who engaged in marketing outreach to the LGBTQ communities or voiced commitments to DEI.
Who Is Robby Starbuck?
Robby Starbuck, a former music video director, has led the charge on social media against companies that are committed to DEI policies and has orchestrated public pressure campaigns to get companies to abandon these commitments. Several of the companies that have abandoned DEI policies in recent months were targeted by Starbuck, who encouraged his followers to boycott companies including John Deere, Harley-Davidson and Lowe’s. Starbuck has claimed credit for these policy changes, stating in a post on X in November he had threatened to expose the “wokeness” at Walmart, but claimed he had “productive conversations” with the company that influenced its decision to scale back its DEI efforts. Starbuck again claimed credit for McDonald’s rolling back its DEI policies, posting on X that he had told the company he would publish a “story on woke policies there” three days before it announced its DEI policy changes.
Chief Critics
The Human Rights Campaign, whose Corporate Equality Index is a frequent casualty of the DEI policy rollbacks, criticized the anti-DEI crusade in its fall 2024 magazine as a “coordinated campaign led by the same actors who have been driving the wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislative and legal attacks across the country.” HRC called out Starbuck for “misrepresenting” the Equality Index as a “coercive tool forcing businesses to adopt ‘woke’ policies,” instead clarifying it is a “voluntary, widely respected benchmark for LGBTQ+ workplace inclusion.” Mark Cuban has frequently defended DEI, stating in April he believes “DEI is a positive because I see its impact on bottom lines,” citing the hundreds of companies he invests in.
Key Background
Some companies slashing their DEI programs have cited the Supreme Court’s June 2023 decision, Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which ruled race-based affirmative action programs in college admissions violate the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Further Reading
Costco is pushing back — hard — against the anti-DEI movement (CNN)
What is DEI and why is it dividing America? (CNN)
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[1] Url:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2025/04/11/ibm-reportedly-walks-back-diversity-policies-citing-inherent-tensions-here-are-all-the-companies-rolling-back-dei-programs/
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