Turning Point USA

On his first day in office, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order to end “Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing.” 

Target Corporation seems to have followed this trend by either cutting, preparing to cut, or not renewing, several of its former DEI programs. On January 24, Target announced that it will be ceasing several initiatives regarding DEI.

According to Target’s Belonging at the Bullseye Strategy, the corporation will be:

• “Concluding our three-year diversity, equity and inclusion goals.
• Concluding our Racial Equity Action and Change (REACH) initiatives in 2025 as planned.
• Ensuring our employee resource groups are communities fully focused on development and mentorship. These communities will continue to be open to all.
• Stopping all external diversity-focused surveys, including HRC’s Corporate Equality Index.
• Evolving our “Supplier Diversity” team to “Supplier Engagement” to better reflect our inclusive global procurement process across a broad range of suppliers, including increasing our focus on small businesses.”

These initiatives were established after the death of George Floyd, when corporations started increasing their promotion of DEI in response to Floyd’s death and the public backlash resulting from it. Target has had two major DEI initiatives spanning two years. (See images below). One initiative went from 2019 to 2021. The following one ran from 2022 to 2024. The language of these former initiatives appears as though another two year initiative would be planned for 2025.

The New York Post reported that Target’s new direction regarding DEI has prompted backlash from the LGBTQ community in Minneapolis, where Target is headquartered. Twin Cities Pride, a local LGBTQ organization, removed Target from its upcoming Pride celebration in June. Previously, Target was a significant sponsor of the celebration.

Andi Otto, Executive Director of Twin Cities Pride, told MPR News why the organization chose to remove Target from its celebration: 

“The community is just very disappointed that someone like Target, who has been a staple in our corner for so many years, has made this decision and not made the decision to stand up against those who are fighting against us.”

Target has not commented on the decision made by Twin Cities Pride to remove its sponsorship from the celebration. 

According to CBS, prior to the President’s Executive Order other companies have axed their DEI initiatives, “including Meta, Ford, McDonald’s and Walmart.”