Newsfront Trump’s Triumph: Death of DEI Businesses, bureaucrats, and educators abandon woke programs ahead of new administration. F BY DAVID A. PATTEN
ollowing president don- ald J. Trump’s historic elec- tion victory in November, it looks like DEI will be RIP in
America. Trump’s triumph could mark the beginning of the end of the controver- sial diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) doctrine that swept through higher education and corporate America following the brutal killing of George Floyd in 2020. An entire industry of consultants, speakers, trainers, and analysts sprang up to reeducate employees and human resources departments nationwide. DEI workshops sought to create
a “safe place” for employees to share their personal stories. They encour- aged empathy and cultural sensitivity to help root out unrecognized biases. And they included use of non-gender- specific greetings like “Hello, all!” instead of “Ladies and gentlemen.” DEI added hundreds of millions
to annual corporate costs and estab- lished an infrastructure that conser- vative critics labeled the “DEI indus- trial complex.”
10 NEWSMAX | JANUARY 2025 But after the 2024 election cycle, it
appears the DEI fever dream has bro- ken. In late November, America’s big- gest employer, Walmart, announced its DEI program would be hitting the clearance rack. The policy changes first announced
by anti-DEI crusader Robby Starbuck and later confirmed by Walmart include:
Removing all transgender products
from store shelves, including books and “chest binders” marketed to minors.
Ending preferences that favored minority-owned suppliers over others. Nixing mandates requiring staffers
to attend racial equity training. Discontinuing terms like “DEI” and “LatinX” in the company’s official communications. The Associated Press called it “a
profound shift in the wake of Trump’s election victory.” Joining Walmart’s departure from
the DEI bandwagon: Aircraft and defense industry giant Boeing, which announced the dismantling of its DEI training and monitoring program as part of a larger corporate initiative to reduce employee head count by 10%.
Those moves by Walmart and Boe-
ing follow a growing stampede of other corporations backing away from DEI, including: Ford Motor Co., Toyota, Harley-Davidson, John Deere, Cater- pillar, Lowe’s, Stanley Black & Decker, and Molson Coors. Even Starbucks, the Seattle-based
coffee chain, has been caught up in the anti-DEI backlash. In March, its shareholders voted to delete “diver- sity and sustainability” goals from its executives’ bonus-pay metrics. Institutions of higher learning also
appear to be going back to school when it comes to their DEI programs, especially in red-state strongholds. The University of North Carolina
has eliminated both DEI require- ments and the staff positions sup- porting their implementation. The University of Kentucky shuttered its diversity center and reassigned the affected employees. And the Univer- sity of Nebraska at Omaha closed its Gender and Sexuality Resource Center. State legislatures in Texas, Flori-
da, and Utah went even further, vot- ing to ban DEI initiatives altogether throughout higher education in those
TRUMP/JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES / DEI/DMITRY DEMIDOVICH/SHUTTERSTOCK
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