DEI lost its luster despite its sudden arrival on the scene being so forceful and sudden that it seized corporations and government officials alike.
Those corporations who embraced it suddenly found that it was detrimental to their bottom line because Americans weren't feeling it... at all. They openly denounced it, and refused to do business with corporations who embraced it whole-hog.
I don't think I need to remind you about the Bud Light boycott. When Anheuser-Busch slapped transgender celebrity Dylan Mulvaney's face on a can, America snapped away billions of its net worth away like Thanos. To this day, some people still refuse to drink any beer by the corporation.
DEI was so unpopular that when Robby Starbuck, a conservative activist and filmmaker, would confront them on it, they would swiftly send notice back to Starbuck that they were shutting down their DEI departments, ceasing funding to anything that looks remotely woke, and getting back to serving the American people. We're talking companies like Tractor Supply Co., Harley-Davidson, John Deere, and Walmart.
Read: Robby Starbuck Is Dismantling Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion One Corporation at a Time
Of course, the biggest signal to corporate America that we were all done with DEI was the election of Donald Trump, whose campaign promises included destroying DEI policies within the government and making our nation one of merit and talent. Once that went down, many corporations seemed more than happy to hit reverse and nuke their own DEI departments.
And why not? DEI is expensive, not just because it costs a lot to create these departments and pay these "consultants," but also because DEI policies shove aside merit and talent for identity-based hiring and promoting. I'm sure many corporations were champing at the bit to ditch these things, but couldn't because they were afraid that investment firms like BlackRock would punish them.
Read: Nature Is Healing: DEI-Dependent Workers Can't Find Jobs
DEI is dying a well-deserved death... yet Democrats still can't seem to let go.
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey said during an interview that DEI was actually beneficial to companies, and that every corporation that has embraced it has seen an upswing in its profits.
"Talk to any CEO of any Major Fortune 500 company. They'll tell you that their bottom line — dollar wise — does better when there's more diversity in the room," said Healey.
Healey said she doesn't know why these companies are ditching their diversity aims.
Massachusetts Gov. says if you talk to any CEO they'll tell you how DEI makes everything better.pic.twitter.com/A2zAWzbXXV
— Defiant L’s (@DefiantLs) May 30, 2025
Of course, she's wrong. As of this writing, 34 major corporations have rolled back their DEI initiatives and mentions of DEI in the Fortune 100 company reports have plummeted by 75 percent. Why? Because they weren't profitable.
Let's take the study Healey was likely talking about, which said that corporations that embraced DEI showed a 19 percent higher innovation revenue. That sounds really great until you realize that innovation revenue is describing income made from new products that might not even have made a profit yet. This clever way of talking about revenue was actually cooked up by DEI consulting firms, and not to be taken as anything truly helpful to corporations.
In the real world, you can see the damage DEI has done to these corporations. Anheuser-Busch lost billions, as you know. Target lost $9 billion. Disney's DEI-infused offerings continued to drive audiences away, causing its bean counters to have anxiety attacks with every film release.
DEI is like a transgender "woman." It tries to make itself look like profits. It tries to talk like it's profitable. It even tries to come up with fancy words to describe itself as profitable. However, underneath, it's still just a corporate virtue signal. Corporations don't want to identify as profitable, they want to be profitable.
Democrats are continuing to push DEI at their own peril. Everyone is breaking up with it, but Democrats had a lot of benefits from it that allowed them to pipeline their ideology into corporations, put people in government positions that had no business being there, and all of it allowing for their influence to continue pervading every aspect of America, even when they're out of power.
Trump's quest to terminate the waste and rid America of DEI is part of ridding Democrats of that latent power.
But still, Democrats are now pushing something wildly unpopular, causing them to lose support on two fronts, both within government and without.
My reaction? Never interrupt your enemy while they're making a mistake.
