Corporations that receive billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded federal contracts have a duty to be ideologically neutral, transparent, and accountable to the American people.
This shouldn’t need to be said. But 1792 Exchange’s new database of top government contractors shows that it does.
One of the report’s most striking revelations is the fact that some government contractors most aggressively aligned with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are not even American. These include the United Kingdom-based BAE Systems, BP, Deloitte, and Rolls-Royce, and Ireland-based Accenture.
Many American contractors blatantly promote radical agendas — at this point, LGBT might as well stand for “Lockheed, General Dynamics, Boeing, Textron” — but allowing foreign firms to act as ideological agents within the American system is beyond the pale.
These firms exert extensive influence on federal agencies and provide essential services such as defense technology, energy logistics, financial auditing, and consulting, while actively promoting a worldview that the American electorate and our current administration reject.
As President Donald Trump made clear in executive orders rescinding federal DEI mandates, the “government should be focused on mission readiness, not ideological indoctrination.” This principle must encompass foreign contractors and consultants.
To grasp the scale of ideological encroachment, consider BAE Systems, the British defense and aerospace giant, which received $7.7 billion in government contracts in 2023.
Despite serving as a primary contractor for the Department of Defense, BAE has adopted comprehensive DEI goals, including race- and gender-based recruitment benchmarks and board composition — a commitment they called “Change the Race Ratio” in their 2023 annual report — and ethnicity-based mentorship programs, such as RISE, implemented by KPMG.
In the United Kingdom, where BAE is allowed to take “positive action,” it must adhere to national expectations of not engaging in “positive discrimination.” Yet on American soil, with American funds, they behave as if potential violations of civil rights law are both normative and commendable.
Similarly, BP — the British energy conglomerate that obtained over a billion dollars in federal contracts from the United States government — publicly supports a vast range of DEI policies, including racial equity audits, DEI-linked executive compensation schemes, and gender identity training protocols.
American citizens, through federal procurement budgets, are effectively subsidizing an imported ideology that increasingly lacks democratic legitimacy at home.
Accenture ($3 billion) and Deloitte ($3.7 billion), incorporated in Ireland and the United Kingdom, respectively, have become deeply embedded in federal operations, making their cultural influence within agencies indistinguishable from that of internal leadership. These firms frequently promoted their DEI credentials in competitive bids, and until now, federal officials have often highlighted these characteristics as value-added features instead of liabilities.
It’s commendable that Accenture announced it would end its DEI initiatives. However, given its history of establishing headquarters in foreign countries — first in Bermuda, then moving to Dublin in 2009 to avoid paying American taxes — it’s concerning that the company promoted this agenda at any point without being fully invested in the outcome of our nation.
Given that $3 billion of its $64.9 billion in revenue comes directly from American taxpayers, and its global CEO operates from an office in the Washington, D.C., area, one should question how Accenture can claim to be Irish. Notably, the company is aware of this line of inquiry, listing its Irish domicile as a risk factor in its 2024 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Likewise, Rolls-Royce ($1.1 billion), the British aerospace firm, completes the list of foreign-headquartered contractors that combine technological excellence with radical ideological activism. Although it reportedly rolled back funding for its identity-based employee resource groups in the United States, Rolls-Royce previously enacted internal policies that reflect the most radical tenets of the DEI framework, including “anti-racism” events and unconscious bias training.
The central paradox is this: as the United States reorients its federal policy around merit, neutrality, and excellence, some of the largest beneficiaries of government contracts are foreign actors advancing the very ideologies that Americans just voted to reject.
Congress and the Trump administration must act swiftly to align federal contracting policy with the new executive directives. A contractor’s country of incorporation must not allow it to launder political agendas through backdoor bureaucratic channels.
Ultimately, federal contracting is more than an economic matter; it is a matter of sovereignty. American taxpayers should not be subsidizing foreign entities that undermine American values. 1792 Exchange’s report has exposed this vulnerability. Now, it falls to policymakers to close the gap between the will of the people and the behavior of those paid to serve them.
Daniel Cameron is the CEO of the 1792 Exchange and the former attorney general of Kentucky.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.