Pepsi plans to cut diversity initiatives including representation hiring targets, making it the latest company to roll back some of its diversity policies amid a wave of backlash against DEI that has become a central issue of President Donald Trump's second term.

Costco has refused to back down from its DEI policies. The company's shareholders overwhelmingly voted to reject a proposal that would have obligated the company to review the potential risks of maintaining its DEI initiatives, with more than 98% of shareholders voting against the proposal. The board said it "believes that our commitment to an enterprise rooted in respect and inclusion is appropriate and necessary." Apple's board similarly urged shareholders to reject a proposal raised by the same think tank, accusing the group of "inappropriately" attempting to "restrict Apple's ability to manage its own ordinary business operations." Delta Airlines also said it remains committed to DEI on a Jan. 10 earnings call. Peter Carter, the company's executive vice president for external affairs, told a reporter the company is not reevaluating DEI or sustainability policies because "they are actually critical to our business," stating DEI is "about talent and that's been our focus." Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins told Axios "a diverse workforce is better" because "there's too much business value." Robbins said the DEI backlash is being treated as a "single issue" when it is really "made up of 150 different things, and maybe seven of them got a little out of hand," but those few things are "going to get solved and then you're going to be left with common sense." Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing said at a press conference the company stands "firmly behind" its "integral" DEI programs, stating the company can "see how Deutsche Bank has benefited from it," making it the latest bank to defend DEI after conservative groups filed shareholder proposals at various banks urging them to review their diversity policies. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said at a press conference ahead of Super Bowl LIX the NFL -- which requires teams to interview at least two minority candidates for vacant head coach, general manager and coordinator positions as part of its broader commitment to diversity -- will continue its diversity efforts "because we've not only convinced ourselves, I think we've proven ... that it does make the NFL better," and he added: "We're not in this because it's a trend to get into it or a trend to get out of it."

Shortly after being sworn in, Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memo to Justice Department staff stating the department will "investigate, eliminate, and penalize illegal DEI and DEIA preferences" at private companies and universities that receive federal funds. She urged the department to enforce federal civil rights laws to push private companies to roll back DEI, and cited the Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard Supreme Court case, which ended affirmative action, as cause for eliminating DEI at universities.

In an executive order issued on the first day of his second term, President Donald Trump ordered the elimination of diversity, equity and inclusion programs within the federal government -- but it has also threatens to punish some private entities, like public companies, non-profits and universities, that use them. In his executive order, Trump slammed the "infiltration" of the federal government with DEI programs, citing an executive order former President Joe Biden issued on his first day in office that directed federal agencies to address racial inequities. Trump's executive order directs federal government agencies to no longer consider diversity in hiring and revise employee training programs to gut DEI training. The order also demands the elimination of "environmental justice" offices and positions in federal agencies. During his inaugural address, Trump vowed he would "end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life," stating he would "forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based." Trump also signed an executive order eliminating DEI offices and policies within the military, Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security, which he considered to be "race-based and sex-based discrimination," and in a separate executive order, effectively reinstated his 2017 ban on transgender troops, banning "identification-based pronoun usage" and prohibiting troops assigned male at birth from using women's bathing or sleeping facilities.

Several business leaders addressed diversity, equity and inclusion at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, while Trump railed against it in his speech. In his address, Trump said his administration is moving to "abolish all discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion nonsense" in both the government and the private sector, and said the United States will become a "merit-based country." But some CEOs who attended the forum this week defended the practice, CNBC reported, including JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who said his company will "continue to reach out to the Black community and Hispanic community, LGBT community, and the veteran community." Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman said attitudes toward diversity "come and go with different political cycles" and her company will continue to value "diversity of views and diversity of backgrounds." Vista Equity Partners CEO Robert Smith said "diversity is a great thing in business," stating diverse teams are more productive. Reuters spoke with three unnamed tech executives at Davos, all of whom run companies that have contracts with the U.S. government, who said their companies would not abandon DEI, though they may need to find new words to describe their diversity efforts as the term "DEI" becomes more politically charged. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan told Reuters diversity has "commercial logic," while Bain & Company executive Alexander Schmitz said private equity firms that roll back DEI will likely have a "problem in fundraising." Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley slammed DEI at Davos, stating companies are "pulling back from DEI and I welcome that" because Americans "don't want to be a label."

A conservative think tank, the group pushes shareholder resolutions at many companies that would roll back corporate DEI and environmental regulations. The group launched its Free Enterprise Project in 2007 to combat what it calls the "woke takeover of American corporate life" through these proposals. Apple previously rebuffed the National Center for Public Policy Research in 2014, when shareholders rejected a resolution that would have forced the company to disclose more about the cost effectiveness of its investments to combat climate change. Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly became visibly angry at the company's annual meeting when a NCPPR representative asked him questions, stating the company considers more than just profitability when it invests in environmental causes. "If you want me to do things only for [return on investment] reasons, you should get out of this stock," Cook said.

Diversity, equity and inclusion policies -- which can include employer-mandated diversity trainings, resource groups for underrepresented minorities and commitments to equity in hiring -- swept corporate America after the 2020 police killing of George Floyd. But recently, these programs have faced legal and political challenges and a wave of backlash from conservative critics and free speech advocates, who consider DEI policies racist and "woke." Billionaires Bill Ackman and Elon Musk are among the anti-DEI crusade's most outspoken advocates. Ackman became DEI's fiercest crusader last year when he pushed for the eventual resignation of former Harvard University President Claudine Gay after her remarks to Congress about antisemitism on campus following the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel were widely criticized. Ackman, in an essay slamming DEI, claimed he had learned Gay was hired through a Harvard presidential search process that primarily considered candidates who met certain diversity criteria, though a Harvard spokesman said DEI officers had no hiring authority. Many Republican-controlled state legislatures took action against DEI in 2024, with several states, including Alabama, Iowa and Utah banning DEI at public colleges and universities. The wave of conservative backlash against companies deemed "woke" picked up significant steam in 2023 when Bud Light became the target of a conservative boycott after it briefly collaborated with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney for a marketing promotion. The boycott tanked the beer brand's sales and unleashed a wave of smaller copycat boycotts against companies who engaged in marketing outreach to the LGBTQ communities or voiced commitments to DEI.

Robby Starbuck, a former music video director, has led the charge on social media against companies that are committed to DEI policies and has orchestrated public pressure campaigns to get companies to abandon these commitments. Several of the companies that have abandoned DEI policies in recent months were targeted by Starbuck, who encouraged his followers to boycott companies including John Deere, Harley-Davidson and Lowe's. Starbuck has claimed credit for these policy changes, stating in a post on X in November he had threatened to expose the "wokeness" at Walmart, but claimed he had "productive conversations" with the company that influenced its decision to scale back its DEI efforts. Starbuck again claimed credit for McDonald's rolling back its DEI policies, posting on X that he had told the company he would publish a "story on woke policies there" three days before it announced its DEI policy changes.

The Human Rights Campaign, whose Corporate Equality Index is a frequent casualty of the DEI policy rollbacks, criticized the anti-DEI crusade in its fall 2024 magazine as a "coordinated campaign led by the same actors who have been driving the wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislative and legal attacks across the country." HRC called out Starbuck for "misrepresenting" the Equality Index as a "coercive tool forcing businesses to adopt 'woke' policies," instead clarifying it is a "voluntary, widely respected benchmark for LGBTQ+ workplace inclusion." Mark Cuban has frequently defended DEI, stating in April he believes "DEI is a positive because I see its impact on bottom lines," citing the hundreds of companies he invests in.

Some companies slashing their DEI programs have cited the Supreme Court's June 2023 decision, Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which ruled race-based affirmative action programs in college admissions violate the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.