While President Trump was ecstatic over Apple's investment of $500 billion in nine states over the next four years, U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday urged Apple to scrap its diversity, equity and inclusion policies, a day after the iPhone maker's shareholders voted overwhelmingly to keep them in the face of growing pushback from conservative groups.

Big U.S. companies, including Amazon, Meta, Alphabet and others have dropped DEI initiatives as Trump's returned to the presidency.

Trump has called them discriminatory and suggested the Department of Justice could investigate if such efforts violate the law. "Apple should get rid of DEI rules, not just make adjustments to them. DEI was a hoax that has been very bad for our country. DEI is gone!!!" Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that was in uppercase.

Tuesday's vote at the iPhone maker's annual meeting was seen as a test of shareholder views on DEI programs, which many companies added or beefed up starting in 2020 amid the Black Lives Matter movement.

Supporters of the policies say they address longstanding bias, inequity and discrimination. But proponents of the proposal against Apple's DEI had argued recent legal changes could result in an increase in discrimination cases if Apple continued such policies.

Trump issued an executive order in January to end DEI initiatives in the federal government and private sector, saying such efforts discriminates against other Americans, including white people and men and weakens the importance of merit in job hiring or promotion.

The company reports workforce diversity data but sets no targets or quotas, focusing its DEI efforts on programs such as a racial justice initiative that supports historically Black colleges and universities in the U.S. for more, read the full Reuters report.

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