‘We need your trust’: As Trump returns to the White House, DE&I practitioners grapple with an uncertain future

Donald Trump made a lot of promises on the campaign trail, including calls to roll back perceived “wokeness” in schools as well as LGBTQ protections. As the picture of Trump’s return to the White House comes into clearer view, multicultural and diverse-owned agencies are grappling with an uncertain future.

Already, these agencies are contending with shrinking diversity, equity and inclusion budgets and societal backlash over diversity efforts. Agency executives aren’t at the point where they’re resigning themselves to a Trump administration 2.0, but a similar scene did play out back in 2016 during Trump’s first presidency. This time around, agency execs said they’re less concerned about the fallout from mounting political polarization and are instead focused on maintaining current spend commitments to keep business afloat.

“It is what it is,” said Latoya Bond, CMO at BGD Media, a multicultural and independently-owned marketing agency. “There’s nothing that we can do about it. We’ve just got to figure out how to work with it for the next four years.”

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