Corporate America’s MAGA makeover – will the UK follow suit?

The re-election of Donald Trump has thrown corporate America’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies into reverse.  Along with environmental, social, and governance (ESG), DEI standards are being dumped, as executives buckle under pressure from the long-held conservative grudge against affirmative action and programmes designed to upend discrimination and promote progression.

It raises the question of whether these organisations were ever truly committed to these causes, given how easily they can discard such values. More concerning still, is whether UK companies will follow suit and cave to the right’s witch hunt against what’s pejoratively labelled ‘wokeness.’ 

Or will they resist political demonisation and uphold their DEI commitments? If they stand firm, they’ll diverge from the path taken by their US counterparts, led by a president, who controversially suggested the day after the plane crash in Washington that DEI policies had hindered the recruitment of the brightest people into air traffic control.

Consider the likes of Apple’s Tim Cook, Google’s Sundar Pichai and OpenAI’s Sam Altman. They all joined Meta’s Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Bezos in pledging $1mn to Trump’s inauguration fund. Pichai even flew to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, presumably to placate the president, who had previously claimed Google was “rigged” to hide positive coverage about him. As did Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. They are just two of the many top execs eager to gain favour with a president known for his sharp criticism of companies and CEOs he dislikes.

Amid the growing embrace of unfettered capitalism, DEI departments being dismantled, support for racial diversity charities is fading, and involvement in climate change initiatives are being scrapped. Anything deemed ‘woke’ is being scrubbed from corporate documents, advertisements, and public statements.

Take McDonald’s, one of the largest US corporations to announce it is ‘sunsetting’ its specific diversity goals, including requiring its suppliers to commit to certain DEI targets and avoiding participation in external surveys that measure corporate diversity. McDonald’s is also changing the name of its diversity team to the Global Inclusion Team — a common practice for many other companies that have rolled back diversity pledges.

McDonald’s said such changes have been driven by a recent Supreme Court ruling against affirmative action, which effectively ended race-conscious admission programmes at colleges and universities across the US.

Then there’s Meta, formerly Facebook. In January, Dana White, UFC CEO and close friend of Trump, was added to Meta’s board. The company restructured its diversity leadership, shifting its chief diversity officer to a new role, while abandoning previous goals to increase racial and gender diversity among suppliers and managers.

Mark Zuckerberg, Meta founder, joined a podcast by Joe Rogan, who endorsed Trump in the election, and praised the rise of “culturally neutered” companies. “I think having a culture that celebrates the aggression a bit more has its own merits that are really positive,” he said.

The global professional services firm Deloitte meanwhile has purged its DEI-related content. Management recently told staff it was ‘sunsetting’ its diversity goals in the US, as well as an annual DEI report. The term sunsetting is interesting. What follows sunset? Darkness which seems just about right.

In this current political climate, Wall Streeters feel suitably emboldened to openly embrace a profit-driven market, without nodding to any broader social goals.

 “Most of us don’t have to kiss ass because, like Trump, we love America and capitalism,” one banker commented. 

Another said: “I feel liberated. We can say ‘retard’ and ‘pussy’ without the fear of getting cancelled . . . it’s a new dawn.”

Lovely. A ‘new dawn’ perhaps only for those eager to resurrect outdated, misogynistic language at the expense of respect and inclusivity and straight forward decency. If this is what ‘liberation’ looks like, it’s a grim reminder of how easily some can lose sight of the values of dignity and equality.

For employees at these major corporations, the DEI backsliding must surely raise questions. How can they trust their employers’ commitment to values when those ‘core values’ can be discarded so easily?

So, what about in Britain, long seen as the loyal follower of the US? There are worrying signs that UK corporations are following Trump’s aggressive anti-woke line.

BP pulls the plug on green ambitions

Just this week, BP angered climate groups by announcing it was abandoning its 2020 plan to become a Net Zero energy company. The oil giant will invest in new gas and oil projects, equating to around $10bn a year, in a bid to reverse its flagging fortunes – flagging in relation to other oil companies that is given that it still makes a healthy return for investors.

BP’s chief executive, Murray Auchincloss, said its green plans were ‘misplaced’ and went ‘too far, too fast.’

The announcement sparked outrage among climate campaigners. Greenpeace UK has called on the government to “ensure companies like BP pay their share for the climate damage they’re causing”.

BT to scrap diversity measures

Meanwhile BT, once the bastion of Britishness with a state telecoms monopoly, is to scrap the diversity measures in its manager bonus scheme. The company told major investors that it plans to replace the DEI component of its scorecard with a focus on employee engagement.

The new system is set to come into effect in April, following what BT described as “strong support” from shareholders.

The move comes despite criticism from Allison Kirkby, BT chief executive, of companies that are “stepping back from their commitment to inclusion.”

Reporting BT’s decision, the Telegraph framed it as part of a broader trend.

“Telecoms giant joins major US companies in rolling back DEI initiatives amid return of Trump,” it headlined, adding: “BT is to scrap diversity measures in its manager bonus scheme in one of the clearest signs yet that British business is rethinking the role of ethnic and gender representation targets.”

But then the right-wing’s media’s elevation of anti-woke narratives is not surprising. Last month, Murdoch’s Sun published a corker of a frontpage.

“£8bn research cash used for trans-friendly robots, ‘queer animals’ and TikTok dance…”, read the headline of a report based on research by the TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA), the right-wing think-tank that campaigns for low taxes, less government intervention and has long opposed government measures to combat climate change.

But as fact-checkers Full Fact concluded, the Sun’s headline was misleading, as £8 billion is roughly the entire annual budget for UK Research and Innovation. About £10.4 million of funding has been allocated to projects that the TaxPayers’ Alliance described as “woke”.

A misleading headline in the Sun? Surely not!

Are UK banks wobbling?

Amid this anti-progression, anti-climate action landscape, British banks, once champions of green finance, seem to be having a wobble. Last month, HSBC delayed its Net Zero target for operational emissions by two decades, now aiming for 2050 instead of 2030. The bank blamed the delay on “latest best practice on carbon offsets,” signalling a shift in the consensus that carbon credits should play a minimal role in corporate Net Zero strategies.

However, as Simon Mundy, Moral Money editor at the Financial Times points out, banks’ relatively small operational emissions are not the biggest concern.

 “Far more important is the finance that they provide to the energy transition. On this front, there’s no evidence that they’ve seriously watered down their objectives since 2021.”

Since 2021, HSBC has facilitated $393.6 billion in sustainable finance and investment and is on track to meet its goal of at least $750 billion by the end of this decade. Similarly, NatWest, which committed to providing £100 billion in climate and sustainable funding between 2021 and 2025, had already reached £93 billion last December.

But Mundy’s point isn’t to claim UK banks are climate champions – they remain under intense scrutiny from environmental groups for their exposure to the fossil fuel sector, particularly Barclays, which does more oil and gas finance than any other bank in Europe.

“And their varying definitions of terms like “sustainable finance” make it hard to draw apples-to-apples comparisons of their performance,” he writes.  

But if government action doesn’t accelerate, the banks have hinted that more serious environmental policy retreats might be in store.

“Our climate ambitions are unlikely to be achieved without timely and appropriate government policy and technology developments,” HSBC warned.

Glimmers of hope?

While there are certainly wobbles, there are signs that UK businesses are holding strong on diversity commitments, even as their US counterparts scale back. McDonald’s UK, for example, is sticking to its DEI policies, pledging 40 percent of senior roles for under-represented groups by 2030 and enhancing social inclusion in its supply chains.

The Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) had urged McDonald’s to resist following America’s example. The union accused the US business of ‘regressive’ actions in backtracking on DEI commitments.

The position of McDonald’s UK position mirrors a similar move by Deloitte UK which has insisted it was “committed to diversity goals” even as the US branch announced a DEI retreat.

What do Britons think?

When asked about the prospect of UK companies following US businesses in scaling back their commitments on DEI, half of Britons believe it would be ‘bad.’

Mike Granleese, head of data and insights at Apella Advisors, which carried out the study, explained to the Times why most people thought ditching DEI was bad.

“For some, that’s because firms would miss out on talent,” he said. “But the biggest reason for thinking less of firms that junk diversity programmes is that they would be abandoning principles they previously said they held dear. The public values authenticity.” 

But the poll also recorded some support for scaling back on DEI commitments, with 29 percent either agreeing with or “understanding” the move, and that older people and men were more inclined to agree with Trump’s position. 

“The Trump agenda is not popular among Britons, with most opposing moves by business and politicians to adopt the president’s ideas,” Granleese added. “But that view is not universal and significant parts of UK opinion are positive about Trumpism.” 

I have to say that I’ve yet to meet anyone in Britain openly supportive of Trump, but perhaps they’re out there, just keeping their admiration quiet, for obvious reasons.

But even if Britain stands by its DEI commitments, Trumpism’s assault on ‘wokeism’ could still be felt here.

Stonewall staff ‘shellshocked’

Staff at LGBTQ+ UK charity Stonewall, are reportedly ‘shellshocked’ after news that the charity might be forced into cutting staffing by as much as 50 percent, principally due to US funding for overseas DEI initiatives being frozen by the Trump administration.

“Workers at the LGBTQ+ charity were told on Thursday that restructuring would take place, and that only roles with dedicated funding would be safe,” the Times reported.

“Simon Blake, the chief executive of Stonewall, made the announcement in an office-wide Teams call, which was said to have left its 114 staff ‘shellshocked.’”

It might be hard to keep up with everything Trump says and does, but he and his close allies like Elon Musk couldn’t be clearer about their push to dismantle corporate practices they view as pervasive, especially DEI.

As a result, business leaders are rapidly pivoting their practices to be more aligned with their president’s vision. Worryingly, pockets of resistance to the DEI and the climate agenda are emerging in Britain, where some in the corporate world seems to be looking to America for direction, but are as yet unsure whether to follow.

It will require strong political leadership from progressive politicians in the UK and in Europe to withstand the hopelessly short term and contradictory bombast of Trumpian politics. In the end Trump will fail but the worry is the damage he does until that happens.

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