The majority of American companies are now considering scaling back their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts following President Donald Trump’s return to the Oval Office, according to a new survey.
Just over half, 51%, of executives surveyed said that Trump’s recent DEI-related executive orders will likely result in their businesses scaling back on diversity programs, according to a Littler Mendelson survey published Wednesday. Of those who said they would consider rolling back DEI-related initiatives, 61% said they are also considering whether to remove or reduce diversity-related language from their websites, proxy statements or other outward-facing communications.
Prior to Jan. 20, only 38% respondents said they thought more companies would begin to decrease DEI efforts, according to the survey.
Of those surveyed, 55% said that they were worried about facing potential lawsuits related to DEI practices and programs, as well as shareholder proposals or enforcement actions from the U.S. government. Still, 49% of executives said they were not considering rolling back their companies’ DEI efforts, according to the survey.
“Diversity has almost become a bad word,” one anonymous general counsel said in the survey, adding that “we’ve managed to maintain several previously implemented initiatives regardless of what they are called.”
The Trump administration has been spearheading a massive effort to overturn DEI policies across federal government agencies and American schools. On the first day of his second term, Trump signed an executive order to toss out “radical and wasteful” diversity programs in the federal government. On Jan. 22, the president signed a separate executive order that eliminated “DEI preferencing” in federal contracting by revoking Executive Order 11246 that mandated affirmative action and required government agencies to “relentlessly combat private sector discrimination.”
The Trump administration has also moved to eliminate DEI programs in public schools and universities, and has threatened to revoke federal funding for schools that do not comply with his executive orders.
A string of major companies in the U.S. have begun retreating on DEI policies over the past year amid increasing pushback from consumers and investors, including Target, Walmart, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.
Notably, many of Target’s consumers called for the company to abandon its LGBTQ-related policies and stop promoting LGBT pride products in recent years. Target lost roughly $13 billion in market value toward the end of May 2023 after facing consumer backlash over its pride month collection. The major retailer has since backtracked, saying it will only sell pride collection items online and in select stores.
Littler Mendelson surveyed 347 C-suite executives, including chief executives, diversity heads and legal officers, from mid-December 2024 to mid-January, and then surveyed 340 executives again from Jan. 30 to Feb. 7.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the percentage of surveyed executives who said they are considering scaling back DEI initiatives.
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