Apple risks the wrath of Donald Trump as it defies executive order on DEI
Apple and its shareholders have rebuffed a bid to make the technology giant get behind President Donald Trump's anti-DEI policies.
Conservative campaigners had wanted Apple to scrub corporate programs designed to diversify its workforce.
The proposal urged Apple to follow a litany of high-profile companies that have retreated from diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives - which are currently in the Trump administration's crosshairs.
McDonald's scaled back some of its DEI initiatives in January amid growing conservative opposition.
In the past year, major companies such as Walmart, Ford, John Deere, and Tractor Supply bowed to pressure and rowed back on their DEI commitments.
After a brief presentation about the anti-DEI proposal, Apple announced shareholders had rejected it without disclosing the vote tally. The preliminary results will be outlined in a regulatory later Tuesday.
Apple’s commitment to diversity comes even as Trump has called for a Justice Department review of whether such programs discriminate against employees who don’t fit their criteria.
Despite Apple’s stance on DEI, CEO Tim Cook has maintained a cordial relationship with Trump since his first term — an alliance that has helped Apple avoid tariffs on iPhones made in China.
FILE - An Apple logo adorns the facade of the downtown Brooklyn Apple store on March 14, 2020, in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)
After Cook and Trump met last week, Apple on Monday announced it will invest $500 billion in the U.S. and create 20,000 more jobs during the next five years - a commitment applauded by the president.
The proposal to Apple came from the National Center for Public Policy Research, a self-described conservative think tank.
Tuesday's shareholder vote came a month after the same group presented a similar proposal during Costco's annual meeting, only to have it overwhelmingly rejected.
That snub didn't discourage the National Center for Public Policy Research from confronting Apple about its DEI program in a pre-recorded presentation by Stefan Padfield, executive director of the think tank's Free Enterprise Project, who asserted 'forced diversity is bad for business.'
In the presentation, Padfield attacked Apple´s diversity commitments for being out of line with recent court rulings and said the programs expose the Cupertino, California, company to an onslaught of potential lawsuits for alleged discrimination. He cited the Trump administration as one of Apple's potential legal adversaries.
'The vibe shift is clear: DEI is out and merit is in,' Padfield said in the presentation.
The specter of potential legal trouble was magnified last week when Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed a federal lawsuit against Target alleging the retailer´s recently scaled-back DEI program alienated many consumers and undercut sales to the detriment of shareholders.
Just as Costco does, Apple contends that fostering a diverse workforce makes good business sense.
McDonald's has changed its DEI programs after mounting pressure from conservative groups
But Cook conceded Apple may have to make some adjustments to its diversity program 'as the legal landscape changes' while still striving to maintain a culture that has helped elevate the company to its current market value of $3.7 trillion - greater than any other business in the world.
'We will continue to create a culture of belonging,' Cook told shareholders during the meeting.
In its last diversity and inclusion report issued in 2022, Apple disclosed that nearly three-fourths of its global workforce consisted of white and Asian employees. Nearly two-thirds of its employees were men.
Other major technology companies for years have reported employing mostly white and Asian men, especially in high-paid engineering jobs - a tendency that spurred the industry to pursue largely unsuccessful efforts to diversify.
Vocal figures on social media, like Robby Starbuck, have also pushed for boycotts of so-called 'woke' companies. It has forced the likes of John Deere, Walmart and Ford to scale back or ditch their commitments.
