Clients of Angel St. Jean have scrubbed their websites clean of words associated with the term equity since Donald Trump began his second term as president.

Some clients have changed the names of their diversity programs. Others slated to speak on panels have instead tapped St. Jean because they told her they can no longer can be associated with equity work.

“Folks in secret will say they are still committed, but cannot use that language,” said St. Jean, the founder and CEO of the Baltimore-based The Equity Brain Trust.

For local diversity, equity and inclusion consultants — many of whom experienced a boom in business following the aftermath of the police-involved deaths of George Floyd and Freddie Gray — the Trump administration’s targeting of DEI initiatives has resulted in losses of clients and the need to alter the way they have previously done their jobs.

A federal judge on Friday provided DEI supporters a reprieve, largely blocking Trump’s sweeping executive orders that seek to end government support for programs promoting DEI. U.S. District Judge Adam Abelson in Baltimore granted a preliminary injunction blocking the administration from terminating or changing federal contracts they consider equity-related.

But St. Jean, whose company analyzes the impact of equity in the workplace, said she has already lost 60% of her software clients. Her consulting work, however, has picked up this past month as a result of Trump’s policies.

“I feel I am fortunate, to some extent, to find a niche area. A lot of people haven’t worked in months and are having a hard time finding contracts,” she said.

DEI initiatives were already seeing a lag in support before Trump’s executive orders, which, in part, accused them of “replacing hard work, merit, and equality with a divisive and dangerous preferential hierarchy.”

Since then, several major companies have followed Trump’s lead. Walmart, Meta and McDonald’s all ceased their DEI programs.

Last week, in a reversal of a President Joe Biden initiative, the Trump administration barred its federal agencies from considering the DEI practices of a vendor when deciding whether to purchase a company’s products or services.

“Corporate America changes with whoever is in the administration,” St. Jean said. She added that she fears there is a failure to understand that “there are real lives, and real people hanging in the balance. It is not an intellectual exercise.”

St. Jean, who launched her company in 2020, is quick to point out that she believes DEI principles were never properly implemented. She criticized the “performative” nature of launching employee resource groups for underrepresented populations, and publicly touting diverse supplier networks without showcasing the effectiveness of those efforts.

Jeff Johnson, managing director at Actum LLC, a global strategy firm, said the DEI industry did itself a “disservice” by failing to incorporate inclusion and equity programs into businesses and organizations as a growth strategy, as opposed to simply a public relations ploy.

Johnson, a Baltimore resident whose consultancy, JIJ Impact, joined Actum in 2023, said he is now telling clients to remember that equity creates opportunity. Forecasts show non-whites will become the largest demographic in this country, alongside growing global markets in South America, Africa and Asia, demonstrating the need to connect with a more diverse consumer base, he added.

Johnson said Trump’s policies have created uncertainty among his clients.

“They are not sure what they should do. They’re trying to assess their values,” he said.

Despite the headwinds, Chrissy M. Thornton, who leads Associated Black Charities as CEO, said her organization has leaned into DEI consulting work since the Trump election.

So far, Thornton said, the Trump policy changes have had a limited impact, including the end of federal funding for some subcontract work done by the 40-year-old Baltimore-based nonprofit that works to achieve racial equity by eliminating the barriers of structural racism.

“We’re in a good position,” Thornton said.

That has allowed them to offer consulting work for companies looking to maneuver within the Trump administration’s executive orders targeting DEI practices.

Among the tasks: help companies revise their impact reports, websites and mission statements that once touted DEI efforts by name.

“We’re helping them maintain how to maintain that work without abandoning communities they want to help,” she said.

Maurissa Stone, president of Iona Concepts, has done diversity work for the past 30 years and worries about the psychological safety of those working in DEI.

“Many people were promoted and transferred into these DEI roles,” she said.

Stone’s business has dropped 60% during the current Trump administration. She said that decrease essentially erased the “tremendous uptick in business” she experienced amid the racial reckoning — the conversations and protests that stemmed from Black Americans being killed by law enforcement across the country. “A lot of people feel unsafe.”

Stone, who began doing equity work in the cannabis industry in 2023, voiced concern about future efforts to address the lack of racial representation in the multibillion-dollar industry.

Stone said she is not willing to help companies change their language to comply with the Trump administration.

“I’m not doing that. I’m going to stand on ten toes,” she said. “What message are we sending by doing that? These values cannot be hidden in plain sight.”

The Associated Press contributed to this article.