McDonald’s latest company rolls back ‘woke’ DEI policies as trend continues into 2025

McDonald’s announced on Monday that it is ending some practices that are part of its broader mission to be inclusive, becoming the latest major company to scale back diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) policies that critics consider “woke “.

The fast-food giant is the first company to adjust its DEI policies by 2025. Last year, a number of companies made similar changes, including Walmart, Ford Motor Co., John Deere, Lowe’s and Toyota, following activist pressure.

McDonald’s is the first company in 2025 to announce that it is scaling back its DEI policies. (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images/File)

In an open letter to its franchisees, employees and suppliers, McDonald’s touted its achievements in its commitment to inclusion, one of its “core values,” and the company also said it wanted to “highlight a few key changes in our approach.”

The changes include McDonald’s scrapping its “aspirational representation targets”, removing its DEI pledge for its suppliers, changing the name of its diversity team to the Global Inclusion Team and ending external investigations.

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Although McDonald’s did not mention any external surveys by name, the decision means it joins a long list of companies that have pledged to stop participating in the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index, an annual survey and report used to measure “policies, practices” and benefits relevant to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) employees.

McDonald’s said it began discussing the changes months ago, acknowledging it was considering the legal landscape following the Supreme Court’s 2024 ruling against affirmative action, as well as similar moves by other companies.

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Anti-vigilante activist and filmmaker Robby Starbuck, who has led a campaign exposing the vigilante policies of major corporations, said on X after the announcement that he warned McDonald’s three days ago that he would report on their “vigilante policies” if they didn’t do it. agree to change them.

Starbuck has taken credit for forcing change at the above companies, as well as Tractor Supply, Harley-Davidson, Polaris, Indian Motorcycle, Coors, Stanley Black & Decker, Jack Daniel’s parent Brown-FormanDeWalt tools, Craftsman, Caterpillar, Boeing and Nissan.

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Starbuck told her followers, “As our first corporate flip in 2025, I just want to say HAPPY NEW YEAR!”