Corporations flee DEI after Trump EOs

After President Trump issued Executive Order (EO) 14173 (“Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity”)—which requires federal contractors to certify under the False Claims Act that they do not have any “illegal” diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and which directs federal agencies to identify public companies and higher education institutions that engage in “illegal” DEI for investigation—the flow of corporations dropping DEI has gone from a trickle to a raging flood.

Corporate capitulation

Since the EO was issued on January 21, Booz Allen, GE Aerospace, Roche Holding, Goldman Sachs, Deloitte, Open AI, Google, JetBlue, Target, Disney, Southwest Airlines, and Bristol Myers Squibb have all pulled back some or all of their DEI programs. Even those companies retaining DEI are retooling their approach to emphasize merit-based hiring and to eliminate references to “diversity.”

Before Trump’s EO, many companies had already backed off their commitment to DEI as a result of pressure from anti-DEI groups and activists such as Edward Blum, Stephen Miller (now deputy chief of staff to the president) and Robby Starbuck. That included many household names like Amazon, Boeing, Tractor Supply, John Deere, Harley-Davidson, Caterpillar, Stanley Black & Decker, Lowe’s, Ford Motors, Molson Coors, Brown Foreman, Meta, Toyota, Walmart, and McDonald’s.

Consumer pushback