Corporate Silence on DEI Will Grow Louder Under Trump 2.0

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.