Last week, Amazon announced plans to release a "behind-the-scenes" documentary about Melania Trump, produced by the incoming first lady herself. The tech giant reportedly paid $40 million for the exclusive deal, just weeks after donating $1 million to husband Donald Trump's inaugural committee and pledging to livestream the ceremony on its Prime service.

Ahead of the November presidential election, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also canceled plans for the Washington Post, which he owns, to endorse Trump's Democratic rival. Shortly after the election, he praised Trump's "effort to reduce regulations" and personally went to his Mar-a-Lago resort to have dinner with the incoming president.

Bezos' eagerness to curry favor with the Trump family has been echoed by business executives across the U.S. After Trump's election, tech billionaires, financiers and leaders of some of America's most prominent consumer groups rushed to adapt to a more conservative outlook. the spirit of the times. and a Republican sweep of both houses of Congress.

Similar to how businesses rushed to support social justice causes following the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police in 2020, businesses today are reinventing the way they interact with customers, employees, and society at large.

Some of the moves, such as CEOs traveling to Florida to visit Trump, making donations and trying to do business with people in his inner circle, appear to be an effort to curry favor with a man known for attacking companies and executives he doesn't like. people.

But the election also accelerated a broader shift toward more conservative social and political positions and an embrace of unfettered capitalism.

Companies are eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion departments, cutting support for racially diverse charities and exiting climate change organizations. They also scrubbed public statements, company documents and advertising of anything that might be considered "woke."

The election has led some executives to openly support conservative policies, from tax cuts to traditional gender roles.

"There is pressure from conservatives in this political atmosphere, and people are just looking forward to a change in government..." . Trier Bryant, a former DEI executive at Goldman Sachs and Twitter, said:

All the developments were immediately reflected in the social media group Meta last week. The company ditched its content moderation policy, added Trump's longtime friend and Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White to its board, moved its chief diversity officer to a new role and ditched promotion managers and supply racial and gender diversity goals.

Founder Mark Zuckerberg later joined a podcast hosted by Joe Rogan, who supported Trump in the election, and lamented the rise of "culturally neutral" companies. "I think having a culture that celebrates aggression more has its own merits and is very positive," Zuckerberg said.

Liberal politicians and investor activists were alarmed. “It’s deeply painful that businesses are giving in to Trump,” said Brad Lander, New York City’s comptroller and an advocate for sustainable investing. "We've seen so many examples throughout history where democracy and basic rights have been eroded over time."

But companies, executives and analysts believe the motivations driving the changes are complex and reflect more than just a desire to cater to the incoming president.

Executives believe customer sentiment has changed and that court rulings and state and federal regulatory investigations, especially last year's U.S. Supreme Court ruling that affirmative action at universities is illegal, have weakened the foundation of diversity and climate programs.

For many, the new administration offers a welcome opportunity to roll back some of the tougher rules put in place under President Joe Biden and tilt tax and regulatory policies in their favor.

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon recently praised the incoming Trump administration for "implementing a growth strategy."

"I'm very optimistic that this administration will implement a very, very pro-growth agenda," Solomon told a Reuters event.

Tech leaders have made some of the most high-profile gestures toward Trump and conservative values ​​in a preemptive attempt to mend fences. Apple's Tim Cook, Google's Sundar Pichai and OpenAI's Sam Altman have all joined Meta's Zuckerberg and Amazon's Bezos in pledging to Trump's inaugural fund For $1 million, Pichai also flew to Mar-a-Lago. Trump has previously claimed that Google was "rigged" to hide positive coverage of him.

“It shows a lack of confidence and a lack of backbone among tech executives,” said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, senior associate dean for leadership studies at the Yale School of Management, describing their donations to Trump’s inauguration. for the “tithe plan” for the president-elect.

In finance, the most obvious shift since Trump’s election has been around climate change. All major Wall Street banks and several large fund managers have withdrawn from industry groups seeking to use their financial clout to reduce carbon emissions.

BlackRock, which has been the target of conservative national investigations and lawsuits over its previous support for sustainable investing, last week made clear that legal and regulatory issues were the reason for its exit from plans for a net-zero asset manager.

Even the way people on Wall Street talk and interact is changing. Bankers and financiers say Trump's victory has emboldened those chafing at "wokeism" who feel they must self-censor or change their language to avoid offending younger colleagues, women, minorities or Disabled people.

"I feel liberated," said one top banker. "We can say 'retard' and 'coward' without fear of being cancelled. . . . It's a new dawn."

Some on Wall Street also feel able to make money publicly without identifying with any broader social goals. “Most of us don’t have to suck up because we love America and capitalism as much as Trump does,” one person said.

At the same time, consumer-facing groups are becoming increasingly wary of appearing "woke," lest they trigger the kind of backlash Target and Bud Light have faced for marketing that celebrates gay and transgender people. The backlash began long before the election.

But the shift to the right is so rapid that some groups are already stranded. After the recent terrorist attacks in New Orleans, Allstate Insurance Group CEO Tom Wilson drew fierce criticism for saying "we need to overcome division and negativity to become stronger together."

Conservative activists have accused Wilson, whose company is sponsoring a high-profile American football game in the city, of minimizing murder while promoting progressive causes. Allstate attempted to explain that the statement "reflects a broader commitment to promoting trust and positivity in communities across the country."

Another major shift for businesses has been in DEI efforts, especially since the Supreme Court ruled in June 2023 banning the use of race-based college admissions. The trickle turned into a flood after Trump's election as companies including Harley-Davidson, Ford and Molson Coors began scaling back their corporate diversification just months later.

Walmart will no longer consider race and gender when awarding supplier contracts, ends racial equity training for employees and will not renew funding for the Center for Racial Equity, which it pledged to provide $100 million in the wake of the Floyd protests Established with U.S. dollar funds. McDonald's last week lowered its target for the percentage of female and non-white managers, no longer requires suppliers to sign a DEI pledge and said it will now call its diversity teams "global inclusion teams."

Both companies pointed to legal concerns but also to the changing landscape. McDonald's cited the "changing landscape" while saying it was committed to inclusion. Walmart said its shifting approach demonstrates "our willingness to change with our associates and customers who represent all of America. We've been on a journey knowing we're not perfect, but every decision is driven by a desire to cultivate a sense of belonging."

The changing landscape also offers companies a way to rethink or abandon environmental and diversity goals they can't achieve anyway, consultants and other corporate advisers say.

"They don't want to be caught promising and not delivering," said Richard Edelman, chief executive of public relations group Edelman, which advises business leaders. “Companies remain committed to diversity and inclusion, they just don’t want to guarantee results.”

It's unclear whether this conservative turn will last longer than the progressive stance the company laid out in 2020. Bryant, a former DEI executive who is now CEO of consulting firm Pathfinder, said many of the policy reversals appear to be an attempt to mitigate political scrutiny rather than substantive policy changes.

"Maya Angelou said, 'When people show you who they are, believe them.' When companies show you who they are, believe them, too," she said.

Reporting by Brooke Masters, James Fontanella-Khan, Gregory Meyer, Taylor Nicole Rogers and Patrick Temple-West in New York and Tubby Kinder in San Francisco