Corporate Silence on DEI Will Grow Louder Under Trump 2.0

From business tariffs to regulatory overhauls and anti-immigration policies, the cloud of Donald Trump’s second presidency looms large over U.S. and global businesses.

One department has already been weathering a public storm under atmospheric pressure from conservative activists: corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

At Adcolor’s annual conference in Los Angeles last month, members of the ad industry told ADWEEK they were determined to reverse politicized thinking around DEI, positioning it as an all-inclusive growth lever.

However, for the CEOs and CMOs whom agencies serve, DEI communications will only get more complicated in the era of Trump 2.0 as executives shy away from activist leadership to avoid alienating already divided consumers.

Walmart is the latest (and largest) brand to rollback its DEI initiatives, announcing last week it would no longer use the term “DEI” in official communications nor consider gender and race when offering contracts to suppliers.

Jeannette Nagy, CEO of crisis communications consultancy Clifftide, has seen an uptick in CEOs seeking guidance around addressing DEI issues this year, something she attributes to political polarization and evolving stakeholder expectations.

She says crisis-driven sensitivity, i.e. how inclusive campaigns from brands like Jaguar, Bud Light, or Walgreens subsidiary Boots can become a lightning rod for controversy and conservative backlash, is also to blame.

The rise and fall of activist leadership

Back in 2018, under the previous Trump administration, CEO activism was the trend du jour. Former PayPal boss Dan Schulman took a stand against gendered bathroom rules in North Carolina, while others, like Apple’s Tim Cook and Howard Schultz, formerly of Starbucks, spoke publicly on everything from LGBTQ+ rights to racial inequality.

Public commitments to DEI became all the more prevalent in 2020 after George Floyd’s murder sparked nationwide protests against racial inequality.

This time around, however, CEOs have been “reactive rather than proactive” in their communications about Trump’s second win, Nagy observed.

“While some leaders have taken steps to prepare for increased polarization, many are hesitant to address Trump-era implications directly due to fears of alienating stakeholders,” she added. “This hesitation can leave a vacuum, allowing external narratives to dominate.”

Trump already has some notable bosses on his side, most famously X owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, whose support has earned him a place as the politician’s efficiency czar. Others, particularly those with reason to fear retribution from the president-elect, were congratulatory versus contemptuous toward Trump after his win.

JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs’ bosses circulated memos post-election congratulating Trump, for instance. Tech CEOs concerned about regulation, including Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Apple’s Cook, and Google’s Sundar Pichai, reached out to Mr. Trump directly in the weeks and months before the first ballot was cast, reported The New York Times.

Rollbacks and DEI-hushing

Long before the red wave took hold on Nov. 6, brands started culling both internal DEI programs and marketing initiatives. Earlier in 2024, Ford ditched DEI quotas, while Loewe’s stopped sponsoring LGBTQ+ Pride parades and Harley Davidson cut minority and women-owned spending supplier goals.

In November, immediately after the election, Boeing quietly dismantled its entire DEI department, accepting the resignation of its vp and reallocating staff to other departments including HR.

“DEI hushing,” where companies no longer boast about progress or highlight their shortcomings, is also on the rise. 2023 data from financial research platform AlphaSense found mentions of “ESG,” “diversity, equity and inclusion,” “DEI,” or “sustainability” during quarterly investor calls were down 31% year-on-year.

For Elly Dembo, global head of data and intelligence at McCann Worldgroup, leaders will have a tightrope to walk between politics and purpose in 2025.

When it comes to weighing in on hot-button issues, McCan’s recent Truth Central research, which surveyed 2,400 people across all 50 states, found that 71% of Americans expect brands to stand up for what they believe in. However, only 19% believe that brands should make political statements.

“In a time when people around the country are feeling uneasy, it’s unsurprising that they’re seeking stability as they look towards the future: 73% of people in the U.S. say they would rather live in a country that is always stable vs. always changing,” said Dembo.

She added that people are looking for brands to help create stability, while still staying true to who they are – creating a delicate balance for leaders to meet societal demands without overstepping.

Repositioning DEI

While the ad industry is still processing Trump’s victory, Sheryl Daija, founder of Bridge, an organization that helps companies build DEI initiatives, is optimistic that agencies and brands can work to untangle DEI from politics in 2025.

“DEI has become conflated with ESG and purpose, rather than something that should run across the whole business,” she said. After George Floyd’s murder, she observed how brands “rushed” to show up for the Black community: “Instead of finding skilled [DEI] practitioners, they identified people of color in the marketing department as the ‘DEI person’,” she explained.

She said this led to “performative” pledges from brands and a misconception that DEI is “only about talent.” Conservatives were able to seize on this and turn it into a political tool.

An administration opening to listening and learning?

Bridge added four new members to its network in the two weeks after Trump was elected, Daija revealed, including a “huge Fortune 500 brand.” She believes these sign-ups, which outweigh the typical registrations the organization expects to see in that timeframe, represent a hunger from businesses to depoliticize the issue and move forward, rather than backward.

She is in no doubt that the president-elect will be a harbinger of changes for DEI departments. Indeed, Bridge has just published a primer on what “Project 2025,” a 900-page policy “wish list” of proposals from right-wing think tank the Heritage Foundation, might mean for businesses.

“When you hear the new administration talking about DEI like it just happened yesterday, you can hear a total misunderstanding and misconceptions of what they even think it is,” she said. “I wish we had an administration open to learning, but I’m not sure we do.”

For Nagy, the best thing marketers can do is anchor their DEI messaging in company values and purpose, so it’s not seen as a response to external pressure, and therefore open to attack. “It becomes less about politics and more about organizational integrity,” she said.

Internally, she wants brands to encourage open dialogue with employees and acknowledge differing perspectives while reinforcing the importance of inclusion for long-term success.

“Consistency in action and communication builds trust and credibility,” she said.