Robby Starbuck, who built a social media following by criticizing companies for their diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, has set JPMorgan Chase (JPM) in his sights.
“JPMorgan … they are going to end up being a target for us,” the conservative Latino activist told Yahoo Finance.
Starbuck called the bank’s methods for training its adult employees on gender identity “embarrassing” and “ludicrous” and accused it of using illegal quotas to hire apprentices and analysts.
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon sounds ready for a fight. “Bring them on,” Dimon said of activist efforts targeting DEI during an interview with CNBC in Davos.
When asked specifically about Starbuck’s intentions, a JPM spokesperson referred Yahoo Finance to Dimon’s CNBC interview and his April 2024 shareholder letter, in which Dimon stood by JPMorgan’s DEI initiatives and said that JPMorgan would “scour” its DEI programs, words, and actions to make sure all comply with evolving laws.
The nation’s largest bank is not the first big American company that Starbuck has targeted.
Starbuck has amassed nearly 770,000 followers on X and is part of a broader cultural force credited with helping to motivate companies like Tractor Supply (TSCO) and Deere (DE) to abandon some of their DEI efforts in what has now become a political flash point.
“We realized the best place to start was start with the companies that had largely right-wing demographics that were consumers, and then slowly inch our way into what we call ‘jump ball’ companies, which are kind of like anybody’s game,” Starbuck said.
Companies in a variety of industries have backpedaled over the past year from DEI policies that they once championed, and these policies now come under increasing criticism in the nation’s capital.
President Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office that ends federal DEI programs and orders US agencies to “combat illegal private sector DEI actions.”
The non-government Department of Government Efficiency, headed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, reported on in late January that it canceled roughly $1 billion in federal contracts geared toward diversity.
Late last month, the Wall Street Journal reported the Trump administration had placed nearly 60 Veterans Affairs workers on paid leave whose jobs were focused on diversity.
Starbuck is also not the only activist pushing companies to retreat from DEI.
The National Center for Public Policy Research, the National Legal and Policy Center, and the Heritage Foundation have submitted shareholder proposals seeking changes or deeper examinations of practices at several big banks.
