In apparent keeping with President Donald Trump’s de-emphasis of DEI programs and language, GM has removed diversity, equity and inclusion language from its annual report for 2024.
The Detroit Free Press points out GM substituted the phrase “commitments to create job opportunities, pay workers fairly, ensure safety and well-being and foster an inclusive work environment in which all employees can perform at their best” over a more DEI-oriented phrase in last year’s 10-K filing.
Unlike the more generalized phrasing in the January 28th, 2025 filing, last year’s report referred directly to diversity. Under the same heading in the 10-K filed on January 30th, 2024, “Human Capital,” GM said it was making “commitments to create job opportunities, pay workers fairly, ensure safety and well-being and promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)” and noted that it would “strive to create a Workplace of Choice.”
This language is absent from 2025’s Annual Report. The Detroit Free Press contacted the automaker to ask for a comment on the change. However, GM’s representatives declined to do so.
A University of Michigan political science professor, Josh Pasek, said it is almost impossible “to know how much the company is still caring about this but not wanting to make itself a target.” Alternatively, Pasek said, GM may have simply been going through the political motions to comply with a more DEI-oriented administration and had no real commitment to begin with.
GM has at least some motivation to keep up with the current political mood of the U.S. government because of its GM Defense division, producing the Suburban Shield SUV for the Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) and other agencies, plus other vehicles. Regarding its ten-year contract with the State Department the head of GM Defense, Steve duMont, said General Motors anticipates “to continuing this partnership and bringing this exciting new platform to other U.S. government and allied defense and security customers.”
Other analysts assert that LGBTQ+ customers are about 5 percent of vehicle buyers in recent years and that 80 percent of these LGBTQ+ buyers say they will not purchase from a company that shows insufficient commitment to DEI. Pasek takes a more neutral view on The General’s phrasing of its annual report, observing “if you think your customer base’s ideology is changing, you might want to change it up.”
