Last week, Amazon announced plans to release a “behind-the-scenes” documentary about Melania Trump, produced by the incoming US first lady herself. The tech giant reportedly paid $40 million for the exclusive deal just weeks after it donated $1 million to her husband Donald Trump's inauguration committee and committed to streaming the ceremony live on its main service.
Before the presidential election in November, the founder of Amazon Jeff Bezos He also canceled plans for the Washington Post, which he owns, to support Trump's Democratic rival. Shortly after the election, he spoke favorably of Trump's “energy on deregulation” and made a personal trip to have dinner with the incoming president at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
Bezos' push to cozy up to the Trump family has caught up with corporate executives across America, as tech billionaires, financiers and leaders of some of the most well-known consumer groups in the US have rushed to adapt to a more conservative zeitgeist in the wake of Trump's election victory. The Republicans swept both houses of Congress.
In a mirror image of the 2020 corporate rush to support social justice causes after the killing of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer, Companies Today they are reshaping the way they interact with their customers, employees and society at large.
Some movements, such as the parade of visiting CEOs Trump In Florida, the donations and efforts to engage with people in his inner circle appear to be aimed at currying favor with a man known for attacking companies and executives he doesn't like.
But the election also accelerated a broader shift toward more conservative social and political positions and the embrace of unfettered capitalism.
Companies are getting rid of Diversity, equity and inclusion departments, cutting their support for racial diversity charities, and dropping out of climate change groups. They also delete anything that could be considered “woke” from public statements, corporate documents, and advertisements.
The election has enabled some top executives to begin speaking out in favor of conservative policies, from tax cuts to traditional gender roles.
“There are conservative pressures in this political climate, and people are just anticipating a change in administration and… aligning their strategies with these expected policy shifts,” said Trier Bryant, former DEI executive at Goldman Sachs and Twitter.
Last week, social media group Meta fleshed out all the developments at once. It ditched its content moderation policies, added longtime Trump friend and Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White to its board, moved its chief diversity officer to a new role, and dropped its goals to promote racial and gender diversity among its managers and suppliers.
Founder Mark Zuckerberg later joined a podcast hosted by Joe Rogan, who supported Trump in the election, and lamented the rise of “culturally castrated” companies. “I think having a culture that celebrates aggression a little more has its own really positive benefits,” Zuckerberg said.
Liberal politicians and investor activists are dismayed. “It's very sad that companies are caving in to Trump,” said Brad Lander, New York City comptroller and advocate for sustainable investing. “We've seen a lot of examples throughout history. This is how democracy and basic rights weaken over time.
But companies, executives and analysts stress that the motivations driving the changes are complex and reflect much more than a desire to please the next president.
Executives argue that the mood among their clients has changed, and court rulings and state and federal regulatory investigations, particularly a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year banning affirmative action at colleges, have undermined the foundations of diversity and climate programs.
For many, the new administration offers a welcome opportunity to roll back some of the tougher rules enacted during President Joe Biden's administration and bend tax and regulatory policy in their favor.
David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs, recently praised the incoming Trump administration for “managing the playbook for growth.”
“I am very optimistic that this administration will implement a very supportive agenda for growth,” Solomon said at an event to Reuters.
Tech leaders have made some of the most visible gestures toward Trump and conservative values, in a proactive effort to mend relations. Apple's Tim Cook, Google's Sundar Pichai and OpenAI's Sam Altman joined Meta's Zuckerberg and Amazon's Bezos in pledging $1 million to Trump's inauguration fund, and Pichai also traveled to Mar-a-Lago. Trump previously claimed that Google was “rigged” to hide positive coverage from him.
“It's a statement about the lack of confidence and backbone among technology executives,” said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, senior associate dean for leadership studies at Yale School of Management. He described their contributions to Trump's inauguration as a “tithing scheme” for the president-elect.
In the financial sector, the most visible shift since Trump's election has been taking place Climate change. All of Wall Street's major banks and many large money managers have withdrawn from industry groups seeking to use their financial clout to cut carbon emissions.
BlackRock, which has been the target of conservative state investigations and lawsuits over its past support of sustainable investing, explicitly cited legal and regulatory issues for its exit from the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative last week.
Even the way people talk and interact on Wall Street is changing. Bankers and financiers say Trump's victory emboldened those who were angered by the “woke doctrine” and felt they had to self-censor or change their language to avoid offending younger colleagues, women, minorities or people with disabilities.
“I feel liberated,” said one senior banker. “We can say 'delay' and 'pussy' without fear of cancellation. . . . It's a new dawn.”
Some Wall Street workers also feel they can openly embrace the idea of making money, without reference to any broader social goals. One said: “Most of us don't have to kiss ass because, like Trump, we love America and capitalism.”
At the same time, consumer-facing groups have become increasingly careful to avoid appearing “woke,” let alone sparking the kind of boycott that Target and Bud Light faced over marketing that celebrated gay and trans people. This backlash was underway long before the election.
But the shift to the right was so rapid that some groups were arrested. After the recent terrorist attack in New Orleans, Tom Wilson, CEO of Allstate Insurance Group, sparked a firestorm of criticism when he said, “We need to be stronger together by overcoming our addiction to division and negativity.”
Conservative activists accused Wilson, whose company was sponsoring a high-profile American football game in the city, of downplaying murders while supporting progressive causes. Allstate tried to make clear that the statement “reflects a broader commitment to promoting trust and positivity in communities across the country.”
Another big corporate shift has been in DEI efforts, especially since the Supreme Court ruled against the use of race-based college admissions in June 2023. Companies including Harley-Davidson, Ford and Molson Coors began to roll back their corporate diversity in the months that followed. The decision, and the country turned into a flood after Trump won the elections.
Walmart stopped considering race and gender when awarding supplier contracts, ended employee racial equity training, and withdrew funding for the Center for Racial Equity, which it established with a $100 million pledge after the George Floyd protests. McDonald's last week dropped targets for the percentage of women and non-white managers, stopped requiring suppliers to sign a DEI pledge and said it will now refer to its diversity team as the Global Inclusion Team.
Both companies cited legal issues but also changing circumstances. McDonald's noted the “evolving landscape,” while saying it is committed to inclusion. Walmart said its changed approach showed “we are ready to change alongside our partners and customers who represent all of America.” We've been on a journey and we know we're not perfect, but every decision comes from a place of wanting to foster a sense of belonging.
The changing landscape has also given companies a way to rethink or scrap environmental and diversity goals they weren't meeting anyway, consultants and other corporate advisors said.
“They don't want to be caught promising and not delivering,” said Richard Edelman, who advises company leaders as CEO of Edelman Public Relations Group. “Companies are still committed to diversity and committed to inclusion, but they don't want to guarantee results.”
It's not clear whether the conservative shift will last longer than the progressive positions put forward by companies in 2020. Bryant, a former DEI executive who is now CEO of consulting firm Pathfinder, said many of the policy reversals appear aimed at easing Policy scrutiny rather than fundamental policy changes.
“Maya Angelou said, ‘When people show you who they are, believe them.’ When companies show you who they are, believe them, too.”
(Additional reporting by Brooke Masters, James Fontanella-Khan, Gregory Meyer, Taylor Nicole Rogers and Patrick Temple West in New York and Tabby Kinder in San Francisco)
