What comes after the DEI backlash?

In recent months, the attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion policies have been unrelenting. Since Donald Trump’s win in November, several major companies — including McDonald’s, Target, Amazon, and Meta — have announced that they’re either scaling back or outright ending their DEI programs. And since Trump returned to the White House, his administration has been dismantling all DEI programs across the federal government.

The assault has been so aggressive that at one point the Trump administration seemed to just be scrapping all references to the words “diversity,” “equity,” and “inclusion” on government websites and handbooks, even in cases where they don’t actually refer to DEI programming. According to the Wall Street Journal, that included deleting references like the “inclusion” of identification numbers on tax forms.