A new study analyzed S&P 500 firms after Trump's January executive order targeting corporate DEI programs and found companies that kept their diversity policies performed just as well financially as those that scrapped them. Costco, Apple and Delta held firm while Google, McDonald's, Walmart and Goldman Sachs fell in line with the administration's threats. Researcher Jacob Grumbach used 'abnormal returns' data to isolate the effect and found no financial penalty for noncompliance.
The panic began in 2023 with boycotts against Bud Light and Target and the Supreme Court's affirmative action ruling, then intensified when Trump's executive orders arrived. Many firms quietly abandoned DEI commitments made after George Floyd's murder, sometimes drawing backlash from the other direction, as when Twin Cities Pride dropped Target as a sponsor. Grumbach says the findings suggest corporations have more room to resist executive branch pressure than they assumed.
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