Several MAGA figures are rejoicing after Walmart announced it will scale back its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.

Walmart, the largest private employer in the US with 1.6 million workers, has become the latest and largest company to say it will backtrack on its diversity initiatives under right-wing pressure.

The changes include withdrawing from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index, which measures workplace inclusion for LGBTQ+ employees, eliminating an equity racial center and not prioritizing suppliers when it comes to for race or gender, The Associated Press reported Monday.

DEI programs aim to address inequities among historically marginalized groups in business, schools and government agencies and have long been the target of Republican attacks over claims that they are racially divisive. Several people joining newly elected President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, including those associated with the Heritage Foundation’s conservative manifesto, Project 2025, have pledged to focus on DEI initiatives.

Elon Musk, the tech billionaire who will join Trump’s Cabinet in the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, celebrated Walmart’s announcement, suggesting it was a major turning point in the fight against the so-called woke agenda.

“The tide has turned,” Musk wrote on the X platform, formerly Twitter, which he owns.

Newsweek has contacted Walmart via email for comment.

Robby Starbuck, a former Republican Party congressional candidate in Tennessee who has led a pressure campaign against companies promoting DEI initiatives, claimed credit for Walmart’s announcement and said he had contacted the company about its policies.

“This is the biggest victory yet for our movement to end corporate America’s wokeness,” Starbuck wrote Monday on to change their policies without me even posting a story outlining their woke policies.

“Businesses can clearly see that America wants normality back. The age of wokeness is dying before our eyes. The landscape of corporate America is rapidly shifting toward common sense and neutrality. We are now the trend, not the anomaly.”

Starbuck posted several other DEI initiatives that Walmart said are now ending. This includes no longer using the gender-neutral phrase “Latinx” to describe people of Latin American descent and reviewing the funding of Pride events to ensure that inappropriate sexualized content that may be unsuitable is not funded for children.

Walmart also will not renew its Center for Racial Equity, a five-year, $100 million philanthropic commitment created in 2020 to address the “root causes of the gaps in outcomes Black and African American people experience in education , healthcare, finance and criminal justice. systems.”

Conservative commentator Rogan O’Handley, better known as DC Draino, wrote to his 1.9 million followers: “Absolutely wild how powerful one X account can be.

“Robby just made Walmart drop its DEI policy. Think about that: a nearly $1 trillion company with nearly two million employees dropped a company policy over a single forthcoming tweet. The pen truly is mightier than the sword. “

Tom Fitton, a Trump ally and chairman of Judicial Watch, added: “Great news. Robby Starbuck is helping to convince Walmart to further retreat from woke racial discrimination and other DEI extremism, such as promoting transgender extremism targeting children!

“It will also stop trying to appease the rabid enforcers of the cultural left in the Human Rights Campaign.”

The Libs of TikTok account, run by Chaya Raichik, while sharing Starbuck’s post, wrote, “DEI MUST THIEF!”

Walmart has now joined other major companies such as Toyota, Harley-Davidson, John Deere and Lowe’s in announcing that it is withdrawing from DEI initiatives.

A Walmart spokesperson told The Associated Press that several of the policies that were dropped, including the use of the term DEI in job titles and communications, have been discussed for some time and are not related to conservative outrage or Starbuck’s activism.

“We have been on a journey and know we are not perfect, but every decision comes from a desire to foster a sense of belonging, open doors of opportunity for all of our associates, customers and suppliers, and to be a Walmart for everyone,” the company said in a statement.

After she was nominated to lead the Democratic Party’s 2024 ticket, Vice President Kamala Harris, who is of Black and Asian descent, was labeled a “DEI vice president” or “DEI candidate” by some right-wing figures ‘. This was met with bipartisan criticism.

Many Black Americans have said that calling someone a “DEI mercenary” is a racial slur.