EXCLUSIVE: Target CEO Meets with Four Congressional Black Caucus Members on Capitol Hill

Jun 27, 2025

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Below: Target CEO Brian Cornell on Capitol Hill Thursday, June 26, 2025

EXCLUSIVE: Target CEO Brian Cornell Meets with Four CBC Members

CAPITOL HILL IN WASHINGTON - Target CEO Brian Cornell met with four members of the Congressional Black Caucus on June 26 in the Cannon House office Building. The members included CBC Chairwoman Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY), Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV), Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) and Troy Carter (D-LA). The members make up the CBC’s diversity task force.

The meeting lasted 30 minutes and was described as candid. When Target CEO Cornell emerged he commented in general to Black Virginia News.

“It’s always helpful to have meetings like this and get some candid feedback and continue to evolve our thinking. We look forward to follow-up conversations,” Cornell answered as he walked down a long hallway in the Cannon House Office Building.

When asked if the issue of the ongoing boycott was discussed, Cornell said, “That was not a big area of focus. We’re focused on running a great business each and every day and taking care of our teams, taking care of the guests who shop with us and do the right things in our communities.”

In January 2025, Target and several other companies rolled back their diversity efforts after President Trump issued Executive Order 14151.

Target has supported students at over 20 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and invested $100 million to Black-led community organizations. The company has also committed to invest $2 billion in Black-owned businesses and brands within a five year period and provided scholarships to over 30,000 Target employees to advance their careers. They’ve also committed 5% of their profits to the communities the stores operate in. According to their website, the company’s net sales were $107.4 billion in 2024. There are 1,981 Target stores in the U.S. according to ScrapeHero.

TRUMP’S ANTI-BLACK DIVERSITY PURGE. President Donald Trump has specifically attacked diversity and inclusion at every turn. After Executive Order 14151, entitled Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing, was signed by Trump on January 20, 2025, several companies ended their diversity efforts. Though the executive order mandated the termination of all "diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility" activities within federal departments, companies followed the directive as Trump pushed the culture of anti-Black policy not seen since legal segregation as if companies were a “federal department.” The executive order and the tour of anti-Black speech and efforts from Trump White House staff and cabinet secretaries has been relentless. Republican Attorney Generals copied Trump’s anti-diversity purge.

It has included the arbitrary firing of qualified individuals who are Black including the Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, and the Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General CQ Brown Jr., who went to high school in Newport News. Trump’s anti-Black moves have also included the removal of baseball legend Jackie Robinson from the Department of Defense and the altering of history on government sites related to abolitionist Harriet Tubman.

BRYANT LEADS TARGET BOYCOTT. Rev. Jamal Bryant, the Senior Pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta, launched a 40-day fast near Easter as a protest against Target. Bryant’s boycott call took place after Target announced in January 2025 that it would end its diversity and inclusion initiatives. Target’s decision included canceling a $2 billion pledge it made in 2020 to support Black-owned businesses following the murder of George Floyd, as reported by Stacy Brown in Black Press USA.

Target “suffered four consecutive months of year-over-year foot traffic declines, including a 9% drop in February, followed by 6.5% in March, 3.3% in April, and 1.6% in May,” reported Black Press USA on June 17, 2025.

RELATED: Virginia NAACP Hits Miyares for Anti-Black Letter to COSTCO (Feb. 3, 2025)

In January, after Trump’s anti-Black anti-inclusion executive order was issued, Costco pushed back on Trump’s diversity purge. What followed was Republican retaliation as 19 Republican attorneys general called on Costco Wholesale to end its diversity, equity and inclusion policies after the company defended diversity. The group included Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares. The Virginia NAACP responded to Miyares’ attack on diversity.

Whether a followup meeting with members of the CBC is planned is not yet confirmed.

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