A top conservative activist has vowed to target US financial giant JPMorgan over its corporate diversity policies amid a White House-led crackdown on so-called ‘woke’ capitalism.
Robby Starbuck, a right-wing commentator who has launched campaigns against several major companies over the last six months, said that he has put the Jamie Dimon-led lender squarely in his sights to axe its diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, programs.
“JPMorgan … they are going to end up being a target for us,” Starbuck, a former video music director with roughly 800,000 followers on X, told Yahoo Finance over the weekend.
Starbuck, 36, slammed the nation’s largest bank for its gender identity training courses, calling it “embarrassing” and “ludicrous,” and claimed the company uses illegal quotas to hire apprentices and analysts.
“At the end of the day, if you see the evidence that this is not making you money, or this is wasting you money, then you should get away from it,” Starbuck said.
His comments came after President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 21 in which he called on the Attorney General to identify private sector companies with “egregious and discriminatory” DEI programs.
A JPMorgan spokesperson defended the company’s policies.
“We engage all communities to find the best talent and to bank the broadest range of customers, which is good for business,” the rep told The Post on Monday.
Dimon recently dismissed criticism of DEI in an interview with CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Speaking at the Alpine summit for global elites, the 68-year-old urged critics to “bring them on” when asked about possible fights over the policy with activist investors.
“We are going to continue to reach out to the black community and Hispanic community, LGBT community, and the veteran community,” Dimon, who raked $39 million in 2024, said last month. “Wherever I go — red states, blue states — mayors, governors say they like what we do. So we’re not trying to pander to any which side or any which thing.
Starbuck claims to be responsible for encouraging some of America’s biggest corporations to roll back DEI policies, including Walmart, Ford, Harley Davidson, and McDonald’s.
“No industry should feel safe,” he told The Wall Street Journal in November. “I will likely turn my sights to retailers who depend on the majority of Americans who just elected Trump with the popular vote.”
Conservative groups such as the National Legal and Policy Center and the Heritage Foundation have also called upon America’s biggest banks to review their approach to DEI.
Heritage has also complained about accusations that some lenders are “debanking” customers who hold right-wing beliefs.
Trump, also speaking at Davos, singled out Bank of America and argued that “they don’t take conservative business.”
The commander-in-chief’s claims were denied by a BoA spokesman.
