Trump Attacks Apple for Maintaining DEI Policies

President Trump is attacking Apple today over its stance on DEI policies that the administration has targeted aggressively since entering office. The company’s shareholders on Tuesday rejected an outside proposal to end its diversity, equity, and inclusion policies after Apple asked investors to vote down the idea. Apple said it does not have hiring quotas for specific demographics but may adjust its policies.

“APPLE SHOULD GET RID OF DEI RULES, NOT JUST MAKE ADJUSTMENTS TO THEM,” the president wrote Wednesday on Truth Social.

President Trump and the GOP have argued that DEI initiatives encourage hiring that is discriminatory against Caucasians, and ideological diversity is more important than mere racial diversity. Supporters of the efforts say they merely aim to create more inviting and inclusive workplaces for underrepresented demographics through acts like increasing employment outreach at historically black colleges and universities.

President Trump early in his new administration signed an executive order targeting DEI in the federal government and seeking to require contractors receiving money from the government to stop their DEI practices. And companies including Amazon, Google, and Meta have quickly walked back their DEI policies to placate the president or to avoid potential legal troubles, citing their federal contracts.

A judge last week blocked President Trump’s executive orders with a preliminary injunction after the government was sued by organizations that said it violated free speech rights. Costco, Apple, and Microsoft are among those companies that have maintained their programs.

Proponents of DEI argue that organizations perform better when they have a diverse workforce that can design products that appeal to all demographics. The tech industry has notoriously skewed white and male, especially at early-stage companies where founding teams often come from the same university, or even the same fraternity. It is always somewhat ironic to see the same people lambasting DEI as unfair, or meritless, themselves working at a company where everyone looks the same. Is it truly a fair meritocracy, critics argue, if a company is hiring largely from its own social network? It is like DEI in another flavor.

Back in 2017, a Google employee wrote a now infamous anti-diversity letter that argued women are underrepresented in tech not because of bias or discrimination, but because of inherent psychological differences between men and women. The letter, and another in 2018 from a former Uber employee, caused an intense uproar and only lent further support to the idea that women were unwelcome in the industry.

Apple CEO Tim Cook is known as a consummate diplomat, often walking a tightrope to maintain friendly relations with the administration in the U.S. and those of countries around the world. The iPhone was among the products that managed to get an exemption to tariffs during the first Trump administration, after all, and Apple has worked carefully with China to stay in its good graces. Last week, Apple announced it would invest $500 billion in the United States over the next four years, though critics were quick to note that the company was likely going to invest the money regardless of whether Trump became president.

The company has pushed back against President Trump in the past, however, such as when it refused to unlock the phone of the terrorist involved in the 2015 San Bernardino shooting.