Kevin O’Leary Shredded After Trying to Bully Costco Into Ditching DEI As MAGA Demands Boycott

“Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary blasted Costco this week for not falling in line with President Donald Trump’s all-out push to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives—igniting MAGA trolls on social media who called for an immediate boycott.

The Canadian businessman and investor made the remarks amid a broader crackdown on DEI initiatives nationwide, as federal agencies in Washington and major corporations roll back their commitments after initially supporting diversity programs in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in 2020.

Costco, a publicly traded company accountable to its shareholders, is now facing intense political pressure to abandon its DEI policies. Many see its refusal to align with the Trump administration’s push to scale back such programs as a direct challenge to MAGA values.

Last Tuesday, 19 state attorneys general sent a letter to Costco CEO Ron Vachris, accusing the company of maintaining policies they claim violate merit-based principles and federal law. Led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, the group gave Costco 30 days to either revoke its DEI policies or explain why they remain in place.

The conservative National Center for Public Policy Research had previously pressured Costco to scale back its DEI efforts, arguing that the company’s focus on diversity could harm stock prices. They also pushed the retailer to release a report detailing the potential risks of continuing such initiatives.

At the club’s annual meeting in late January, the company’s shareholders overwhelmingly rejected anti-DEI efforts—a decision ripped by O’Leary, who is a Costco stakeholder himself.

“They’re nuts if they think I want them fighting the federal government on policy,” O’Leary declared on The Big Money Show on Fox Business last week.

Video of the segment has since been widely circulated on social media, with conservatives mostly agreeing with O’Leary’s stance — with the overarching sentiment being “If you go woke, you go broke,” one X user observed on one thread about the matter.

Known for his blunt and no-nonsense approach to business and investing, O’Leary attempted to bully the company from the TV screen, slamming Costco’s decision as out of touch with the current climate and warning that defying attorneys general in 19 states was a losing battle.

“I don’t care who took that poll when there’s no way you’d get that result today,” O’Leary said, referring to the shareholder vote to keep DEI at Costco. “You don’t fight the attorney general in multiple states — you got to be out of your mind.”

Costco’s directors have long maintained that DEI policies are an asset, not a liability, reinforcing their belief that diversity strengthens the company’s operations and appeal.

Costco executives highlighted that a diverse workforce and supplier base are key to attracting top talent, fostering innovation, and enhancing the “treasure hunt” shopping experience customers value. Costco also countered the National Center for Public Policy Research’s push to end its DEI initiatives, suggesting the group had ulterior motives and emphasizing that customers appreciate seeing diversity reflected in its workforce.

Following the shareholder vote, Lindsey Stewart, director of stewardship research and policy for Morningstar Sustainalytics, argued that the outcome “suggests that even if the political environment on inclusion in the workplace is changing, investors’ low propensity to support anti-DEI resolutions is thus far unchanged.” 

Costco appears to be banking on its reputation as a beloved store with a loyal customer base, which has allowed it to avoid political controversies in the past.

In an interview with Fox News Digital, former Costco executive Roger Campbell defended the company’s DEI policies, calling them integral to its culture, not a modern trend. Campbell, who retired in 2015 after nearly 30 years with the company, criticized critics for misunderstanding Costco’s approach, emphasizing that DEI was simply “how we ran our business.”

“Our whole idea was taking care of the employee. Our whole idea was a very simple thing — if you hire good people, pay them good wages and give them good benefits, then likely good things are going to happen,” Campbell said, according to the network.

On social media, a wave of conservative voices called for a Costco boycott, with some even saying they’d rather skip the short drive to fuel up at the retailer over its continued support for diversity.

O’Leary’s comments added more fuel to the controversy, which escalated Monday when a coalition of professors, diversity officers, and worker advocates sued to block Trump’s executive orders targeting DEI, arguing he overstepped his legal authority and that he lacks the power to unilaterally terminate “equity-related” grants and contracts “without express statutory authority.” Filed in Maryland, the lawsuit marks the first challenge to the sweeping orders by Trump, which has triggered a purge of federal workers.

Despite the legal challenge, O’Leary doubled down, calling Costco’s diversity hiring efforts “bad for business” and urged the retailer to change course.

“Chop, chop guys. Figure this out,” he said. “You’re breaking the law. Get compliant. I mean, hire for merit and advance people that deserve it. You will find every race, color and gender — everybody will come to the fore.” 

As O’Leary continued, he argued that merit-based hiring was by itself capable of creating a diverse workforce.

“[If] you just hire on merit as we do, you get tremendous diversity,” he said, referring to his company, O’Leary Ventures. 

He then insisted that businesses should prioritize job performance over who fills the position.

“We don’t care if you’re gay or transvestite, or have tattoos or fishhooks in your eyelids. We couldn’t give a damn,” he said about his company. “Can you do the job? Can you execute the mandate? Those are the people we advance. If you can do it, I don’t care what planet you came from, you got a job — and that actually solves this whole problem.”

On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order to eliminate diversity programs and then called on private companies to cease what he referred to as “illegal DEI discrimination and preferences.”

However, many U.S. companies had already begun scaling back their DEI efforts before Trump’s 2024 election victory, with Walmart, Lowe’s, McDonald’s, Amazon, Meta, Ford, Harley-Davidson, and Target — all retreating under pressure from conservative activists and the shifting political landscape.

During his inaugural address at the U.S. Capitol two weeks ago, Trump vowed to “end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life.”

The next day, his administration wasted no time, placing DEI officials on leave and instructing agencies to cease any advertisements or postings related to DEI while the departments were disbanded.

Additionally, Trump banned all cultural awareness events, while the Defense Intelligence Agency halted all activities related to Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Black History Month, Juneteenth, LGBTQ Pride Month, Holocaust Remembrance Day, and other “special observances” in compliance with his executive order. All federal employees in diversity, equity and inclusion roles were immediately placed on paid leave by the end of Trump’s third day in office.

Documents related to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) have been quietly removed from the websites of key federal agencies, including the Office of Personnel Management, the State Department, and the Department of Homeland Security.

Trump’s orders went beyond the federal government, seeking to dismantle DEI initiatives in the business sector and academia — advancing a conservative push to frame diversity programs as discriminatory against white people.

The first order, issued on Jan. 20, mandated the closure of federal diversity offices and the dismissal of DEI staff while also terminating “equity-related” grants and contracts. The second order on Jan. 21 instructed the attorney general to investigate publicly traded companies and universities with over $1 billion in endowments for their DEI programs and required federal contractors to certify compliance with anti-discrimination laws or face penalties under the False Claims Act.

The list of companies rolling back diversity programs continues to grow four years after DEI efforts surged alongside the Black Lives Matter movement, which gained traction amid widespread killings of Black men and women, with near-simultaneous shooting cases taking place in Minneapolis, Louisville, and Brunswick, Georgia, sparking months of violent protests across the country.

However, many people online pointed out that Costco is not obligated to follow Trump’s orders because it is not a federal agency.

“Why does Kevin O’Leary care so much about how Costco runs its business? It’s not a governmental entity, so they do NOT have to follow Trump’s orders! one viewer wrote. “Trump can’t order companies to do anything. Costco isn’t government-owned. This reality show host earned most of his money being a reality show host. Go away chump, you’re nothing but an entertainer, a sideshow barker. Boy, oh boy, conservatives love their celebrity politicians. They’re always voting for them,” another chimed in.

In conservative circles, DEI has been loudly decried as part of the “woke” agenda, which many Republicans criticize for placing too much emphasis on social justice and identity politics. This connection has fueled growing skepticism about DEI’s role in shaping corporate culture and decision-making.

“We should have never got ourselves in this place,” O’Leary summed up before suggesting Costco was undercutting its own best interest by defying the government. “At the end of the day, when you piss off the federal government, you cost shareholders money, and that’s exactly what happened here,” he said.