First, it was a Tennessee-headquartered home improvement retailer. Then Harley-Davidson, the manufacturer of the iconic American motorcycle. Then Walmart, and then Ford. This week, McDonald’s made its own retreat from diversity efforts, ditching the need for suppliers to account for who they hired and retiring “aspirational representation goals”.

Long at the centre of efforts by big businesses to show they were focused on more than just profit – often at the behest of their big investors, including major retirement savings funds – the accelerating pivot away from diversity, equity and inclusion policies is the most obvious signs that executives in the United States, and Australia, are preparing for Donald Trump 2.0.