Starbuck, 35, is a figure with an army of more than 650,000 followers on X who are willing to push back against companies whose policies he and Republicans brand as “woke” or see as abdicating their fiduciary duty of maximizing profits., Starbuck discussed the movement’s growth, which has seen some major victories by getting large corporations to back away from their corporate DEI policies.
David Burton, a senior fellow in economic policy at the Heritage Foundation, said while there has been some rollback of DEI, and the related matter of corporate-level environmental, social, and governance policies, little has changed at the federal level. However, Starbuck sees a Trump win as something that could push beyond the bounds of unraveling diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in agencies and at the federal level. He said a wholesale push to dismantle those systems would then filter down to the private sector.Starbuck argued that he and his followers have used capitalism, word of mouth, and the power of consumers’ wallets to shape policy in the corporate world. That push could be greatly accelerated with a likeminded White House.
some of its DEI policies amid pressure from Starbuck and associated Republican activists. As part of that, Lowe’s is no longer participating in corporate surveys from the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign. its DEI initiatives. The company said it will no longer sponsor “social or cultural awareness” events. in June it was changing its DEI positioning.
“So I think you’ll still see corporate change for consumer-facing businesses, but only to the degree that the government has not codified things,” he said. “If you just look at the economic reality of what we’ve done. When Tractor Supply was our focus for three weeks, they lost almost $3 billion in market cap,” he said.