Is Rolling Back on DEI Efforts Really The Right Choice for Companies in 2025?
- Zevez Zalay
- Oct 2, 2025
- 10 min read
Updated: Nov 11, 2025
How the fast food industry and US politics can influence our decisions regarding DEI policies
Zevez N. Zalay
October 1st, 2025 11:05 pm ET
Related Topics
Donald Trump, Department of Greater Efficiency (DOGE), McDonald’s, Organizational Behavior, Job Retainment, Minorities, Employee Retention, Employee Satisfaction, US Politics.
We kicked off 2025 with a 1000-word-long note published on McDonald's official site regarding the changes that they made to their DEI policies, which got taken many different ways despite its title, Our Commitment to Inclusion at McDonald's. (McDonald’s, 2025) After the statement, many other companies followed suit in either modifying their DEI initiatives or shutting them down completely. (Forbes, 2025)
Of course, the high press this received, alongside the sweep of companies making similar actions, the decisions that Team BigMac made sparked major controversy. With some perspectives on the statement with a negative bias, and others that land more on the conservative side of the United States’ political spectrum, praising efforts made by the fast-food burger joint, it’s important for us to dissect the article for what the company actually stated, and try to connect it to what they are trying to achieve by stating so.
Trump’s Laws on DEI Policies
Looking at the timeline for when McDonald's decided to change their DEI policies, it isn’t very out of place when we look at the political landscape. Trump’s executive orders for rolling back DEI policies were signed off on January 20th this year–not too long after McDonald’s decided they were going to jump on the trend. Now, that may get you thinking, well does that mean that McDonald’s acted of their own volition to reframe their DEI policies? No, not quite, while the timeline can be misjudged that way, Trump was spreading the word about his plans during his 2024 campaign, “to vigorously enforce yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling, I will eliminate all diversity equity and inclusion programs across the entire federal government.” (Reuters, 2023) Which pushed a very strong message to U.S. Citizens and domestic companies alike. After the election turned into the Trump Administration’s favor, McDonald’s came out with a plan to roll back their DEI programs, on the day of inauguration, which makes it much harder to claim coincidence. Additionally, previously to the swaying of the election, McDonald’s had a varying opinion on DEI:
Under the leadership of its Board of Directors, the Company adheres to a global diversity, equity, and inclusion ("DEI") strategy which is critical to its success. The DEI strategy is designed to drive efforts across the System to better represent the diverse communities in which McDonald’s operates, to accelerate cultures of inclusion and belonging, upholding human rights and cultivating a respectful workplace that is ethical, truthful and dependable, and to further dismantle barriers to economic opportunity. (McDonald’s Annual Report, 2023)
For which, their stance on the issue at the time made sense. McDonald’s primarily offers entry level employment opportunities at the majority of their locations. By not offering top notch DEI initiatives, they would be subtly sending a message that equality in the workplace is not a priority to them, which could change the brand perceptions of their current and prospective employees alongside many other categories of their stakeholders. Regarding their franchisees, it’s going to be hard to get Americans motivated to work an entry-level fast-food job and frankly, franchisees opt into their positions to have the guidance of a corporation to help them execute this. By corporate McDonald’s not offering a statement regarding DEI also leaves their franchisees with fewer places to turn to regarding fulfilling their employment needs. Assuming that the hypothetical change in perception of their current and prospective employees, as aforementioned, was to make people take action and work for a competitor within the industry.
The Commitment to Inclusion at McDonald’s
So why the change now? McDonald’s released their statement on their new perspectives towards DEI, on January 6th, 2025. Alongside some similar statements made in their 2024 annual report regarding their new strategy implementations for the year ahead. (McDonald’s 2025) However, it should be noted that this statement wasn’t originally publicized, as it was only sent as an email to their internal stakeholders and shareholders–which changes how they may interpret their own actions
They made their company-wide new year’s resolutions by saying,
We are retiring, setting aspirational representation goals and instead keeping our focus on continuing to embed inclusion practices that grow our business into our everyday process and operations. We are pausing external surveys to focus on the work we are doing internally to grow the business. We are retiring Supply Chain’s Mutual Commitment to DEI pledge in favor of a more integrated discussion with suppliers about inclusion as it relates to business performance. (McDonald’s 2025)
To many of their stakeholders who identify as being a part of a minority in America, this statement out of context could spark some motivations for a boycott of BigMacs. Although, there are little hints that the company drops to help balance out the harshness of some of the wordage used, such as retiring, or pausing, which include the following:
[Regarding previous DEI accomplishments] We are immensely proud of these accomplishments, but we are not satisfied.
We take great pride in the programs we have in place to drive our business
Our business model relies on franchisees supporting their communities.
We are also excited to introduce a new concept: the power of OUR “Golden Rule” - treating everyone with dignity, fairness and respect, always. For the last several months, a small team has been working on refining our language to better capture McDonald’s commitment to inclusion.
We are evolving how we refer to our diversity team, which will now be the Global Inclusion Team. (McDonald’s, 2025)
To which, there were many other similar statements made by the company. Through these statements we can see that they understand the importance that DEI plays on organizational behavior, company culture, job satisfaction, job retainment, and supporting their franchisees. Additionally, the fact that they are renaming their DEI team to their “Global Inclusion Team” can get us a bit more curious about if they are truly extinguishing DEI in their company, or simply rebranding it to avoid political controversy. Avoiding political opinion, especially from the Republican and Conservative sides of the U.S. political spectrum, could be a strategic move to avoid what younger generations refer to as “cancel culture”, which is very similar to acts of boycotting with more social media integration.
Trump is known for his patronage of the famous burger joint, spanning from BigMac buffets at the White House, to even going as far as working at a fry cook for a day at the Bucks County location in Feasterville-Trevose, Pennsylvania. (ABC6 Action News, 2024; The New Yorker, 2019) So, not only is it in McDonald’s best interest to not go against one of their top influencers, but they are being forced to do so. In the article titled, Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing the White House states, “provide the Director of the OMB with a list of all: (C) Federal grantees who received Federal funding to provide or advance DEI, DEIA, or ‘environmental justice’ programs, services, or activities since January 20, 2021.” (The White House, 2025) Which, as stated, plans to restrict federal funding to support DEI related initiatives. Thus, being less overt about their “Global Inclusion” goals could allow for some flexibility if they aren’t able to meet their explicit goals due to a lack of funding or other metric of support.
Steps Moving Forward
As someone who owns a startup, or maybe a more established company, what should you proceed with in regards to executing DEI strategies moving forward? While it’s proven that implementation of DEI efforts can improve working conditions and ratings, I think the issue is actually more complex than you might think, and the answer could be different for each company–as we can witness the complications for McDonald’s situation.
First, I believe we have to take into account: company size, and the size of your current obtained market. The internal and external size of your company can give us an insight into the volume of your stakeholder network, and how much of a ripple effect of making a statement about a political subject you may exude.
For small companies, less than 100 employees, the statements you make aren’t likely to make nationwide news, but there still are some things to consider:
Your local community and hyperlocal community interactions with you
The political standing that is dominant in the area you operate out of
Your own political standing
How your current employee base perceives DEI efforts, not the title DEI
Do you need or have received federal funding for DEI related actions
Taking on a more deontological framework by considering the duties towards the local community helps to put the opinions of your consumers into play. What products or services they receive from you, or how they contribute to your business. For example, if one of your company missions is to support minor communities in business, like Rochester Institute of Technology’s Center for Urban Entrepreneurship, the stance you should take is a bit embedded in the nature of your business. (RIT, 2025)
Looking at the political environment of your area can also give you an idea if the area you’re in will support your equality efforts in the workplace, or if it's a sensitive subject to trample on. Those in the communities around you, especially if you’re a brick-and-mortar, are your first-line backers, and without them there could be changes to your cash flows, which can be tricky to deal with a smaller team.
Additionally, if you are the owner of your business, using your own skills of virtue, or a more virtue-centric lens, you can integrate your own beliefs in there rather than implementing something you don’t believe in. This is so that you can keep the passion in doing what you do, rather than slowly growing resentment in the career-centric area of your life. However, it is important to balance your influence with the opinions of your internal team. Allow your employees to voice their opinions on the matter–as a compromise is better than one side or the other losing job satisfaction.
If you're not a small business, over 100 employees, in addition to the points listed above for small businesses, here are some more examples of things to consider:
Do any of your brand influencers hold a public opinion and how valuable are those influencers to your company?
Are you being actively supported by the government?
Your shareholders opinions
Your partnering brands, branches, and subsidiaries
The opinion that is leading within your industry
The minority opinion within your company
What your current diversity metrics look like
One of the biggest things to look at here, as seen in the McDonald’s case, is influencers. While we might not view Donald Trump the same as we view someone mentioning their sponsor for a YouTube video, somebody like Trump is an influencer for a company that the media has eyes on. Influencers are very important regarding avoidance of “cancel culture” as many influencers can have loyal followings that might choose that person over your company, no matter the quality or previous reputation.
Secondly, if you’re being supported or backed by the United States government to run your operations, you could be jeopardizing your company by taking an opposing stance on this topic. This aspect could leave you to the discretion of the political media. Black and white thinking is commonplace as politically driven decisions as it can represent many of our personal values, experiences, and views of justice. Meaning, that a neutral statement could be perceived strongly if given to the wrong hands. Additionally, you could be giving up said support from the government for the sake of taking a stance, and you have to consider if that is the best thing for your company as a whole, and not just your own personal views.
As a larger company, your varying branches, partners, and subsidiaries may take on different opinions regarding the news about DEI policies. While it would be a simpler world to allow the head-office to lead all decisions, every corner should be consulted. The same also applies to shareholders. Now, a suggestion is to not take a fully utilitarian stance on the matter, and consider the argument representatives come to you with, how they match up to what’s in your industry, how they compare to other representatives' arguments, and how they match up to the real experiences of your minority team members.
Lastly, consider where your current diversity metrics within your organization and your consumer base are. Are they at a place that your company is satisfied with, and how does your consumer base infer those metrics? Higher levels of diversity can give insight into the bias or company culture prospective employees and consumers should expect. While lower levels of diversity may tell your stakeholders that your employment, product or service is more targeted at specific demographic criteria over skills, but of course it can be perceived inversely depending on the political nature of your area.
Final Thoughts
Unfortunately, I cannot offer a clear-cut answer on whether or not companies should roll back on DEI policies like McDonald’s, as the decision is dependent on an array of factors. For some companies, taking a compromise-esc approach like McDonald’s could work, others may need to cut their policies all together, and a subset may see that it serves them best to push through with DEI more now than ever. In the end, DEI is about the employee experience, thus considering your employee experience, like the double golden-arches is a great approach. See how they are feeling and base your actions from their perspective–that’s transformational leadership, which we need now more than ever.
References
Melville, D. (2025, January 7). McDonald’s didn’t roll back their DEI efforts — they evolved them. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/dougmelville/2025/01/07/mcdonalds-didnt-roll-back-their-dei-efforts-they-evolved-them/ Forbes
McDonald’s Corporation. (n.d.). Our commitment to inclusion. https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/our-stories/article/our-commitment-to-inclusion.html
Murray, C., & Bohannon, M. (2025, April 11). IBM reportedly walks back diversity policies, citing ‘inherent tensions’: Here are all the companies rolling back DEI programs. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2025/04/11/ibm-reportedly-walks-back-diversity-policies-citing-inherent-tensions-here-are-all-the-companies-rolling-back-dei-programs/ Forbes
The White House. (2025, January 20). Ending radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-and-wasteful-government-dei-programs-and-preferencing/ The White House
McDonald’s Corporation. (2023). McDonald’s 2023 annual report. https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/content/dam/sites/corp/nfl/pdf/2023%20Annual%20Report_vf.pdf
McDonald’s Corporation. (2024). McDonald’s 2024 annual report to shareholders. https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/content/dam/sites/corp/nfl/pdf/McD%20-%202024%20Annual%20Report%20to%20Shareholders.pdf
McDonald’s Corporation. (n.d.). Financial information. https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/investors/financial-information.html
YouTube. (n.d.). [Video Title if known]. https://youtu.be/Yn77tkc577Q?si=zhM7gqBqkSNQ93A5
6ABC. (n.d.). Donald Trump says he plans to work French fry cooker at Pennsylvania McDonald’s Sunday. https://6abc.com/post/donald-trump-says-he-plans-work-french-fry-cooker-pennsylvania-mcdonalds-sunday/15446923/
The New Yorker. (n.d.). The pure American banality of Donald Trump’s White House fast-food banquet. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-appearances/the-pure-american-banality-of-donald-trumps-white-house-fast-food-banquet
The Telegraph. (2024, November 17). Trump, RFK Jr, McDonald’s poison plane, KFC. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/11/17/trump-rfk-jr-mcdonalds-poison-plane-kfc/
Rochester Institute of Technology. (n.d.). Center for Urban Entrepreneurship (CUE). https://www.rit.edu/cue/
Really insightful post. You did a great job showing how McDonald’s DEI rollback ties into the broader political climate, especially with Trump’s executive orders. I liked how you broke down the strategic considerations for companies of different sizes, it made the topic feel more grounded and practical. Curious to see if McDonald’s “Global Inclusion” rebrand leads to meaningful change or just quieter optics.
You provide a thoughtful and balanced analysis of a highly relevant issue. I like how you connected ethical principles to practical consequences — showing how reducing DEI efforts can undermine trust, morale, and long-term performance. The tone feels professional and fair, acknowledging that companies face real pressures but emphasizing why ethical consistency matters. It might be interesting to mention how stakeholder theory or corporate social responsibility frameworks could support your perspective. Overall, this post combines strong ethical reasoning with clear writing, and it encourages meaningful reflection on equity and inclusion in modern business.
This was such an insightful post, you did a great job connecting McDonald’s rollback on DEI with the larger political and corporate landscape. I like how you broke down how Trump’s policies and public influence could’ve shaped McDonald’s timing, and how you considered both strategic and ethical sides of their actions. Your analysis on how different company sizes should approach DEI moving forward felt realistic and thoughtful, not one-sided. It really made me think about how much politics can shape workplace culture, even indirectly.
Nice job on this post! You did a nice job on explaining McDonald’s DEI changes. I like how you connected their decision to the political climate and Trump’s new policies, showing that it probably wasn’t just a random choice. You broke down what smaller and larger companies should think about when making similar decisions really well, and I think that part showed that you really understand how business size and community impact can play a role. I'm curious to see whether McDonald’s new Global Inclusion Team can actually make an impact.
I found your blog post to be very interesting and very well informed. McDonald's DEI policy would signifyingly change both industry trends and many political influences that makes this information easy to understand and easy for people who have never heard of this to easily get caught up and be in the loop and things. I also learned a lot about the shift in companies when sensitive topics are brought up like the DEI teams rebranding to the "Global Inclusion Team". The section on stakeholder was super interesting by you highlighting how complex and varied responses can be depending on political and social.
One question I have is how do you think smaller companies would be able to balance political…