Trump's mission to end DEI spurs companies to retreat from woke corporate culture

President Trump’s effort to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in government is ripping through the private sector, forcing companies to scrub their websites and overhaul hiring practices or risk federal scrutiny and retribution.

Law firms and wireless carriers have publicly assured the Trump administration they are eliminating DEI programs to win approval for mergers or settle disputes with the outspoken president.

Other firms have been subtle, removing references to DEI on their websites, tweaking the language or dropping references to pronouns in email signatures.

Major League Baseball, for example, removed a reference to “diversity” from its careers page to stay in line with Mr. Trump’s directives. The league insisted its “values on diversity remain unchanged.”

Still more companies and institutions are tweaking their stance on DEI while avoiding the spotlight, hoping to satisfy the administration without courting backlash among clients or consumers who support diversity initiatives.

“A lot of this is happening behind the scenes,” Dan Lennington, managing vice president and deputy counsel at the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty. “Corporations, education institutions, hospitals, health care institutions are just sort of either caving completely, fighting or they’re trying to play it cutesy by changing the language in their DEI webpages, which is doomed to fail eventually.”

The DEI movement was designed to foster diversity and give a leg up to people from groups that historically suffered discrimination based on race, gender or other factors, like a disability.

The Biden administration encouraged the programs, which can involve hiring quotas that emphasize minorities or sensitivity training for existing employees. But there was a shift when Mr. Trump returned to power, rallying DEI opponents who said the initiatives led to discrimination, with personal identity outweighing skills and ability.

The impact was immediate.

Citigroup in February dropped “aspirational representation goals” in its hiring and changed the name of its “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Talent Management” team to simply “Talent Management and Engagement.”

That same month, Paramount Global told staff this year it would no longer set “aspirational numerical goals” related to things like race, ethnicity and gender in its hiring.

Beverage behemoth PepsiCo announced it was shifting its chief DEI officer into a “broader role.”

Mr. Trump’s day-one order dismantling DEI in the federal government did not directly address the policies within private companies or nongovernmental entities, though experts predicted – correctly – that it would encourage corporate powerhouses to discard such programs.

The executive order empowered the Justice Department and other agencies to investigate private entities with training and hiring practices that DEI critics say discriminate against nonminority groups such as White men.

It also banned federal contractors and other recipients of federal funding, such as universities, from conducting anti-bias training on concepts such as systemic racism.

Mr. Trump’s team didn’t stop there.

In April, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned road contractors and other recipients of Department of Transportation funds that they must comply with laws and Supreme Court precedents that prohibit hiring discrimination based on certain characteristics, such as race.

“Whether or not described in neutral terms, any policy, program, or activity that is premised on a prohibited classification, including discriminatory policies or practices designed to achieve so-called ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion,’ or ‘DEI,’ goals, presumptively violates Federal law,” the letter said.

Then, in May, the Justice Department created the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative to go after any entity that receives federal funds and engages in discrimination.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said any entities that “allow antisemitism and promote divisive DEI policies are putting their access to federal funds at risk.”

“Many, many companies in America receive federal contracts,” Mr. Lennington said. “I think that Trump’s executive order, and then standing up the Civil Rights Fraud initiative, is very important.”

Telecommunications firms seeking deals have assured the government of DEI changes.

T-Mobile, in a March letter to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, said its new-supplier development program would no longer focus on specific categories of diverse businesses, and that it had eliminated specific targets or goals for diverse spending in its procurement policies.

The company pointed to the shifting legal and political landscape under recent actions by the Supreme Court and the Trump administration. 

One day later, the FCC approved T-Mobile’s acquisition of fiber operator Lumos.

Similarly, the FCC cited Verizon’s agreement to roll back DEI initiatives before it approved a $20 billion merger with Frontier Communications. 

In a statement, Mr. Carr specifically said Verizon was “committed to ending DEI-related practices” as specified by the FCC.

“This will ensure that the combined business will enact policies and practices consistent with the law and the public interest,” Mr. Carr said.

The Washington Times reached out to Verizon and T-Mobile for comment on the changes but did not hear back.

Meanwhile, several law firms agreed in April to roll back DEI initiatives as part of a deal to avoid punishment from Mr. Trump, who went after firms he accused of weaponizing the legal system against him.

“The Law Firms affirm their commitment to Merit-Based Hiring, Promotion, and Retention. Accordingly, the Law Firms will not engage in illegal DEI discrimination and preferences,” Mr. Trump said in a Truth Social post about the agreements.

DEI programs were already faltering before Mr. Trump took office, particularly after the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions in 2023.

Paul Kamenar, counsel at the National Legal and Policy Center, said the movement away from DEI “went into high gear” after the election and Mr. Trump’s order.

“I think the political winds have shifted. These companies are shying away from sponsoring LGBT parades and programs and so forth,” he said. “They’re cutting back on that. But at the same time, it is more of a cosmetic change.”

Indeed, companies are caught in a tough spot, hoping to comply with Mr. Trump’s new rules while avoiding the ire of leftwing activists who say diversity initiatives remain critical.

After McDonald’s announced in January that it would no longer set “aspirational representation goals” and make other changes to its DEI program, the fast-food chain weathered a weeklong boycott spearheaded by liberal activist group People’s Union USA.

In response to the boycotts, McDonald’s said, “Our commitment to inclusion remains steadfast.”

Mr. Kamenar said his group is working to compel the disclosure of annual reports from companies to see if their actions match their rhetoric on DEI, or if it amounts to a relabeling of sorts.

It is also filing lawsuits to get companies to decouple executive pay from DEI goals.

“We’re not against companies doing outreach to sectors to look at a larger pool of applicants. But if they use that to try and hire based on minority status, they’re subject to being sued by an employee or applicant who wasn’t hired or state attorney generals who sent warning letters out,” Mr. Kamenar said.

Proponents of DEI initiatives say Mr. Trump’s tactics amount to intimidation and might expose people to workforce discrimination.

“Still, many companies continue to recognize that diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility is good for business, and despite his best efforts, Trump cannot undo or rewrite our anti-discrimination law,” said Lauren Khouri, senior director of workplace equality and senior counsel at the National Women’s Law Center.

Mr. Trump’s executive action revoked an order issued by President Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s that required a percentage of grants and federal contracts to go to minority and women-owned businesses. It also ended a Biden-era policy that required companies to promote DEI to win federal contracts.

An NBC News poll from March found Americans were divided over DEI programs when asked to choose between two statements that framed the issue.

Roughly half of Americans (49%) said DEI programs should be eliminated “because they create divisions and inefficiencies in the workplace by putting too much emphasis on race and other social factors over merit, skills and experience,” while 48% said the workplace programs should continue “because diverse perspectives reflect our country, create innovative ideas and solutions, encourage unity and make our workplaces fair and inclusive.” 

A larger share of voters (43%) said they had negative feelings about the programs than had positive views (39% ) or were neutral (14%).

“It’s always been kind of a mystery to me why corporate America went so headlong into this,” Mr. Lennington said. “But now they’re completely retreating on most fronts.”

Efforts to dismantle DEI practices at private companies mirror Trump administration probes into whether colleges and universities are engaging in discrimination.

The Department of Justice recently notified the University of California that it is investigating whether hiring practices under the “UC 2030 Capacity Plan” violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin.

“It is the position of this president that we want to restore a merit-based society and culture in the United States of America, where people are not hired nor are they promoted based on the color of their skin or their gender,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt recently said in response to a question about the probe. “The president wants people to be hired in the workforce because of their merit and their skill, and I think most Americans agree with that.”