Donald’s Trump reelection has touched off a flurry of questions about what his presidency means for various policies, including immigration, taxes, reproductive rights, and healthcare. But HR leaders across the country are wondering how it will impact one issue in particular: DEI.  

The past year has already seen a significant rollback of DEI efforts after mounting criticism from right-leaning commentators and business leaders. Some organizations, including Ford, Lowe’s, John Deere, and Tractor Supply, have all dialed down their initiatives. And in the face of a conservative president, people leaders are questioning whether Trump’s second term will only deepen the DEI chill. 

“I do think some companies are going to start to use the rhetoric we’ve heard from Trump over the last year to step away from some of these things,” Paul Wolfe, the former CHRO at Indeed, Match.com, and Conde Nast, tells Fortune. “I think this is another thing that will only get harder for DEIB professionals and HR professionals to deal with.”

Fortune spoke with professors, lawyers, and diversity leaders to get their take on what they’re expecting from the next four years when it comes to DEI under a Trump presidency. They say that legal battles will intensify, and companies will become more cautious about how they discuss their programs. 

“We’ve seen cases where public statements about DEI have been twisted into grounds for lawsuits, EEOC claims, or social media backlash,” attorney Annette Tyman tells Fortune. “As a result, some employers are becoming more cautious about how they talk about DEI, particularly in written external communications.”

But the bigger-picture shift could be a widening corporate divide between companies who walk away from their DEI efforts, and those that choose to dig in and defend them. Nicole Ridley, head of operations at the Financial Alliance for Racial Equity (FARE), tells Fortune that companies should get very clear on what their DEI efforts actually are, the value they bring, and be ready to explain that to whoever comes knocking.  

“We as DEI leaders across sectors will need to step up now more than ever into advocacy and educator roles to provide the tangible corporate benefit—from business development to bottom-line profits—and ensure that these roles and initiatives are not washed away,” she says.

You can read the full story about what experts are expecting under a second Trump presidency here.

Brit Morse
brit.morse@fortune.com

Emma Burleigh
emma.burleigh@fortune.com

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