The following article, President Trump Forces a Reckoning, was first published on The Black Sphere.

There’s nothing quite like the hangover after a long woke bender. The headache is massive. The wallet is empty. And you’re left staring at the wreckage, wondering what the hell you were thinking.

For years, Corporate America was at the party, chugging the DEI kool-aid like it was an bottomless fountain of virtue-signaling goodness. They hired Chief Equity Officers, mandated ideological training, and built entire bureaucracies dedicated to everything except, you know, actually making a good product and turning a profit.

Then, a moment of clarity arrived. It wasn’t a moment of introspection or moral courage. It was a simple, powerful directive from the Oval Office that said, in so many words: Cut the crap.

In September 2020, President Trump signed Executive Order 13950, “Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping.” It was a direct shot across the bow of the woke industrial complex. The order prohibited federal contractors from conducting workplace training that pushed the toxic, divisive ideas of “critical race theory” and its siblings—concepts that teach people to see each other not as individuals, but as oppressors and oppressed based on their skin color.

For a glorious moment, the party was over. The order forced every company that wanted to do business with the federal government—a massive segment of the economy—to make a choice: prioritize woke indoctrination or prioritize the billions of dollars in federal contracts. It was a dose of sober reality. The message was clear: Your social engineering experiments stop at the door of American meritocracy.

Companies were forced to pivot back to sanity.

The focus was shifting from race-based ideology to the timeless American principle of merit. Hire the best person for the job. Full stop.

But then, the Biden administration crashed in like a clumsy caterer, immediately working to repeal this common-sense order and restock the bar with all the same divisive toxins. The party was back on! And few companies cheered louder than the wokest of the woke, rushing to reinstate the very policies that were proving to be a cancer on their competitiveness.

Which brings us to the cautionary tale of our time: PepsiCo.

Emboldened by the new regime, PepsiCo doubled down on the DEI fantasy. They installed a Global Chief DEI Officer, an entire priesthood dedicated to the woke gospel. They were all in. But while they were busy virtue-signaling, the fundamentals of their business were rotting from the inside out.

The result? A catastrophic hangover.

In February 2025, with the stench of failure becoming too strong to ignore, PepsiCo phased out its Global Chief DEI Officer role. CEO Ramon Laguarta called it a new “Inclusion for Growth” strategy. That’s corporate-speak for “We’re throwing the dead weight overboard before the ship sinks.”

But the damage was already done. Just days later, the company announced it would be closing the Frito-Lay plant in Liberty, NY, laying off 300 people. Think about those 300 people. They didn’t lose their jobs because they were bad at making Doritos. They lost their jobs because the company that employed them was more focused on pandering to a vocal minority of activists than on the fundamental business of, you know, staying in business.

Laguarta blamed “economic uncertainty and stubborn inflation.” A convenient scapegoat. Never mind that this inflation is a direct result of the predictably disastrous economic policies of the Biden administration, which PepsiCo’s leadership likely cheered from their ESG-themed conference rooms. The economic chaos that ensued impacted the blue-collar workers in Liberty, New York who likely couldn’t care less about the DEI initiatives that led to their pink slips–hypocrisy is so thick you could dip a Tostito in it.

The numbers are a brutal indictment of the DEI model.

During its second quarter of fiscal 2025, Pepsi reported a 2% drop in its North American beverages division. Their stock has cratered, falling almost 18% over the past year. As The Street put it, the company is “navigating a challenging period marked by sales declines and slowdowns.” That’s corporate-speak for “the ship is sinking, and we’re all out of buckets.”

The market finally sent a bill for PepsiCo’s foolishness. And activist investor, Elliott Investment Management, took a $4 billion stake in the company. Activist investors aren’t interested in your gender studies PowerPoint presentations. They’re interested in value. They are the corporate equivalent of a detox clinic, and they’ve shown up to pump the woke nonsense out of PepsiCo’s system.

PepsiCo should thank President Trump for his executive order. It wasn’t “divisive”; it was a life raft. It was an attempt to force companies to remember what made American industry the envy of the world: competition, merit, and the relentless pursuit of excellence. And it allowed PepsiCo and other companies to “blame Trump” in their shift back to sanity. Don’t worry, Trump can take it.

PepsiCo’s story is a cautionary tale for every boardroom in this country. When you substitute ideology for competence, when you hire based on immutable characteristics instead of immutable skills, you fail. You fail your employees, you fail your customers, and you fail your shareholders.

The solution is the one that was once, briefly, mandated from the highest office in the land: Hire the best American for the job. Hire based on talent, work ethic, and skill. Period.

For more information on moving from mediocrity to meritocracy, visit Unified Solutions America.

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