Is corporate America breaking up with DEI, or just taking its relationship underground?

The second Trump administration has been marked by blowback to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs across American companies. It's a welcome change, according to XX-XY Athletics CEO Jennifer Sey, who calls such programs and hiring practices "excessive."

"Excessive focus on DEI, whether it's through hiring practices or public marketing, actually can have an adverse effect on [a] company's performance," Sey told Fox News Digital. 

"It's not so fashionable anymore… [Companies] are responding to both Trump and the administration and their push and the executive orders, but they're also responding to the public and where popular opinion is, and people are rejecting these DEI programs," she continued.

Gravity Research reported in November that "the term ‘DEI’ fell 98% across Fortune 100 communications." The report analyzed more than 1,000 corporate documents from January 2023 to May 2025.

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"Executive teams are happy to abandon these programs. They're a distraction from the business," Sey added. "It's all the training around diversity that people have to go through. It's the interview process that focuses on anything other than just straight-up merit. It's a distraction from the business. And at the end of the day, the values that the executive teams and the CEOs do have to make money for the company… That's their fiduciary responsibility."

"When they've got employees training all day about diversity, they're not focused on making [a] great product and marketing that product. So, I think [companies are] actually relieved to de-emphasize all of this and walk away from it," she added. 

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Upon taking office again, President Donald Trump signed executive order 14173, titled "Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity" – which ordered the heads of all executive departments and agencies to "combat illegal private-sector DEI preferences, mandates, policies, programs, and activities."

According to Gravity Research, 40 corporations "made public DEI changes" after Trump’s second inauguration, and The Conference Board also found at America’s largest firms, use of the "DEI" acronym dropped by 68% in 2025 compared to 2024 filings.

It was also reported that "33% [of companies] stopped using the term equity altogether," while "53% of S&P 100 companies" adjusted how DEI efforts were communicated in 2025 annual report filings when compared to 2024.

That didn't necessarily mean, according to the report, that they were abandoning DEI altogether, but rather "limiting or reframing public disclosures around their diversity initiatives."

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The retired gymnast went on to recall the Bud Light marketing failure to use transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney for an ad campaign in 2023 as an example, citing the company’s attempt to use "wokeness as a marketing strategy."

"It backfired immensely," Sey said. 

The company has done more traditional, humorous ads in recent years meant to appeal to men, such as its Super Bowl ad this year featuring Peyton Manning, Post Malone and Shane Gillis.

Sey added, "If you want to be woke and that's who you're appealing to, that's fine. Go after it if you think that's going to satisfy your business goals… If you are going after a much more conservative customer and express that through your marketing and that's half the country – you can build a successful business on that. But when we're talking about large brands like Target and Bud Light, I think they do have an obligation to rise to the highest common denominator and focus on the product and unifying values… It shouldn't just fall prey to cultural whims all the time," she continued.

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"[People] want optimism, they want unifying, optimistic values expressed in the brands that they're buying," the athletic brand builder added. 

It's not complicated, she said, for businesses to simply focus on finding the best employees to "deliver the best results."

Target and Anheuser-Busch did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.