Trump’s D.E.I. Order Creates ‘Fear and Confusion’ Among Corporate Leaders

Last summer at N.Y.U. School of Law, more than 200 diversity officers—some from Fortune 500 businesses, some from nonprofits—met by video to discuss the future of their diversity, equity, and inclusion, or D.E.I., initiatives, which had become a social and legal target. They thought anxiously about self-defense. Did they need to remove specific diversity wording from their websites or reconsider internship programs for disadvantaged workers?

These worries increased significantly this week. During his first days in office, President Trump attacked diversity initiatives with a number of broad actions.

Mr. Trump issued an order to place federal officials in charge of government D.E.I. initiatives on leave. His work with the government was not the end of his efforts. An executive order that forbade discriminatory recruiting and employment practices for private government contractors was withdrawn by him after it was signed in 1965. The order’s emphasis on private companies, whether or not they do business with the government, was possibly the most concerning aspect for business executives. David Glasgow, executive director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging at N.Y.U. Law, stated, “We’re already seeing that this flurry of orders has created fear and confusion,”

The executive order directs the federal government to examine D.E.I. projects in the private sector. It states that each federal agency will identify “up to nine potential civil compliance investigations,” which may include, among other things, publicly listed companies, nonprofit organizations, and sizable foundations.

According to Kenji Yoshino, a constitutional lawyer at N.Y.U. who counsels certain Fortune 500 corporations on D.E.I., “That discrete number is a way of striking fear into organizations’ hearts,” They simply do not wish to become one of the nine. Others will become risk hesitant until those nine are made public.

According to civil rights attorneys, D.E.I. programs that provide employment benefits, such as jobs or promotions, to particular groups based on their race are the ones that are most legally vulnerable. Following a Supreme Court ruling in 2023 that invalidated racial advantages in college admissions, a flurry of lawsuits against corporate diversity initiatives ensued.

“Trump is putting the muscle of the executive branch” behind the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling with the executive order, Mr. Yoshino stated.

Before Mr. Trump took office, many businesses had started to change their D.E.I. strategies after realizing the signs were there. Earlier this month, Meta informed staff that it will discontinue its D.E.I. efforts, which included removing diversity hiring targets and the chief diversity officer position. John Deere, Harley Davidson, and Tractor Supply also withdrew on D.E.I. Recently, Amazon reduced some of their diversity programming as well. In a December message to employees, vice president Candi Castleberry stated, “We’ve been winding down outdated programs and materials.”

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