U.S. President Donald Trump Wednesday urged Apple to scrap its diversity, equity and inclusion policies, a day after the iPhone maker’s shareholders voted to keep them in the face of growing pushback from conservative groups.
Major U.S. companies, including Meta and Alphabet , have dropped DEI initiatives ahead of and after Trump’s return to the U.S. presidency.
Trump has criticized corporate DEI programs as discriminatory and suggested the U.S. Department of Justice could investigate if such efforts violate the law.
“APPLE SHOULD GET RID OF DEI RULES, NOT JUST MAKE ADJUSTMENTS TO THEM. DEI WAS A HOAX THAT HAS BEEN VERY BAD FOR OUR COUNTRY. DEI IS GONE!!!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Tuesday’s vote at the iPhone maker’s annual meeting was seen as a test of shareholder views about the value of DEI programs, which many companies added or beefed up starting in 2020 amid the Black Lives Matter movement.