Lockheed Martin Phases Out Key DEI Policy After Questions About Anti-Christian Double Standard
23rd May 2025
Major defense contractor Lockheed Martin announced Thursday that it will phase out employee resource groups, which divide workers along racial, LGBTQ, and activism lines, after President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders and after shareholders expressed concern about an anti-Christian double standard.
“As we shared in January, Lockheed Martin took immediate action to ensure compliance with President Trump’s Executive Order 14173, encouraging merit-based talent management practices within U.S. companies,” Lockheed Martin Chairman, President, and CEO Jim Taiclet said in an email to staff shared with The Daily Signal.
The executive order, issued Jan. 21, declared that “diversity, equity, and inclusion” efforts in the federal government, companies, the medical industry, higher education, and other places can violate federal civil rights laws, which bar discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. The order directs federal agencies to encourage the private sector “to end illegal DEI discrimination and preferences.”
In the order’s wake, Lockeed Martin “conducted a thorough review of our efforts to recruit, retain, and promote the best aerospace and defense talent in the world to ensure full alignment with the executive order and our core values—Do What’s Right, Respect Others, and Perform with Excellence,” Taiclet shared.