Walmart CEO addresses rollback of DEI programs: 'Going to continue to make the best decisions we can'

Walmart U.S. CEO and President John Furner addressed the company's decision to roll back its diversity, equity and inclusion "DEI" programs and policies, in a new interview on Tuesday.

The retail giant became the latest U.S. company to scale back its DEI initiatives this week following similar moves this year from such big names as Harley-Davidson, John Deere and Tractor Supply.

Furner commented on the policy changes on "CBS Mornings" on Tuesday, saying that the company wants to make sure everyone "feels like they belong."

"Like many companies all across the U.S., we've been on a journey," Furner said. "We'll continue to be on a journey. And what we're trying to do is to ensure every customer, every associate feels welcomed here in the shop and to feel like they belong."

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"In early 2023 we started talking about belonging. We're going to continue to make the best decisions we can that makes everyone, our customers, our associates feel like this is an environment they can shop in and thrive in," he continued.

Furner also told CBS the company would "continue" to value its small business suppliers.

Walmart, the nation's largest retailer and private employer, confirmed the company would be making a number of changes, including removing sexual and transgender products from third-party merchants inappropriately marketed toward children from its online marketplace.

It will also stop funding the Center for Racial Equity, a nonprofit that Walmart launched in 2020 as a five-year initiative, and would ditch the terms "LatinX" and "DEI" altogether in official communications.

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The company will also be reviewing its grants, especially for community events, to ensure they remain an appropriate environment for children. However, the corporation will continue to support LGBTQ Pride celebrations.

Walmart will also no longer participate in the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index, a report which rates U.S. businesses on their policies for LGBTQ employees.

Conservative activist and filmmaker Robby Starbuck, who has been leading a campaign exposing major corporations' woke policies, took a victory lap on Monday after Walmart's announced changes.

Starbuck said in a post on X that he had warned Walmart executives last week that he would be releasing a story on the company's "wokeness."

"Instead," he shared, "we had productive conversations to find solutions."

"Our campaigns are now so effective that we’re getting the biggest companies on earth to change their policies without me even posting a story outlining their woke policies," Starbuck wrote. "Companies can clearly see that America wants normalcy back. The era of wokeness is dying right in front of our eyes. The landscape of corporate America is quickly shifting to sanity and neutrality. We are now the trend, not the anomaly. We are winning and one by one we WILL bring sanity back to corporate America."

Walmart confirmed it was notified of the activist's story last week but said these policy changes have been in the works for the past few years and were not a result of their conversation with Starbuck.

Fox News' Breck Dumas and Daniella Genovese contributed to this report.

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