Hollywood was a hotbed of resistance to Donald Trump during his first term, but this time around the mood is more defensive than defiant.
In film studios, music labels and talent agencies, there are nervous discussions about how to protect a creative, diverse workforce while avoiding the wrath of the Trump administration, which is determined to stamp out policies designed to encourage inclusion.
“Employees are definitely scared,” said an executive at a leading Hollywood company, adding that workers were wondering whether their employers were committed to “standing by their values”.
Disney, the largest traditional media company in the world, did not wait to be told by the Trump administration to adapt its policies. The company dropped “Diversity and Inclusion” last week as a performance metric for its executives, the first such shift by a big US entertainment conglomerate since Trump’s return to the White House.
Labelled “woke Disney” by conservative critics, the company appeared to be walking a fine line between catering to the US president, who is on a warpath against DEI, and its employees, who tend to lean left politically.
In a convoluted internal note sent by Disney’s Human Resources department, the company said it was dropping DEI as a “performance factor,” but still identified “inclusion” as one of its core corporate values.
The Disney memo came just days before Trump’s Federal Communications Commission said it was launching an investigation into Comcast, owner of NBC and the Universal movie studio.
In a stern letter, FCC chair Brendan Carr said the inquiry was aimed at discovering whether Comcast’s DEI efforts were “promoting invidious forms of discrimination”. The letter, addressed to Comcast chief executive Brian Roberts, used the word “invidious” five times and called DEI initiatives a “scourge”.
Comcast’s corporate website includes a DEI page professing its commitment to diversity. On Friday it was topped by a blog post about the studio’s efforts to create an “accessible” set for a disabled actor in the Wicked films.
Victor Pickard, a professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, said the FCC had been politicised in the past, but recent moves by Carr suggest “a kind of regulatory capture that is unprecedented”.
“He’s clearly carrying water for President Trump’s agenda to bring media companies to heel,” Pickard said.
Some US media groups, speaking anonymously, told the Financial Times they would largely keep their DEI efforts intact, while dropping the term “DEI” — an acronym that has become toxic after rightwing activists and politicians have set out to banish it.
“We’re still going to think about the diversity of our workforce. For us it’s a commercial imperative. Now, are we going to say ‘Here are our 10 DEI commitments’ and call them DEI commitments, like everyone was doing? Probably not,” said a senior music executive.
“I think a lot of media companies will say: no, we will continue doing what we’re doing, but we’re not going to call it DEI,” the executive continued. “Because you’ve created this swirl of shit around that term.”
The Hollywood executive said that DEI was “being used as a slur”, but that diversity remained essential to the creative industries in a way that might not be true for other businesses.
“We’re focused on creativity and storytelling, so in order to do that in effective ways, we need diversity of thought, a background of creative innovation and inspiration,” the executive said. “And so I think that puts us squarely in a different position than other organisations.”
Trump, who was a reality television star before running for president, has always been fixated on the media. He has made it a priority in recent weeks — even as he has waged trade wars, floated annexing Canada and gutted government agencies — to also attack television groups and stage a coup against Washington’s storied Kennedy Performing Arts Center.
Trump replaced the Kennedy Center’s board last week and appointed himself chair, posting online that he would usher in a “GOLDEN AGE of American Arts and Culture” and would ensure there was no more “ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA”. Hollywood producer Shonda Rhimes resigned from the board.
For media groups that have already been besieged by threats to their business in recent years — the pandemic, the shift to streaming, labour strikes and now artificial intelligence — a hostile president is coming at a vulnerable moment.
“It’s hard right now if you’re a media company. Really, really hard,” said the music executive. “Some companies got to a place of, like, we’re damned if we do, we’re damned if we don’t. So maybe we should just say less.”
Disney’s moves this week, while subtle, landed with a thud among some employees and entertainment observers. Richard Rushfield, editorial director of The Ankler, wrote on Thursday: “We’re not at the point of Steve Bannon having script approval of every project shot in Hollywood, but we’re not a million miles away from that either.”
Netflix and Spotify did not respond to requests for comment. Warner Bros Discovery and Comcast declined to comment, while Paramount did not return calls for comment.
A key question is whether others follow Disney’s lead, or defy the Trump administration.
“Hollywood represents something that’s quite progressive. The progressive forces in America are utterly befuddled about what to do next,” said the music executive.
“It’s just this thing where Hollywood is, like, we’ve got to make sure that we don’t get crushed by this moment.”
