Laverne Cox says Trump-era DEI rollback cost her earnings

Actress and transgender activist Laverne Cox told interviewers that the Trump administration’s dismantling of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes has sharply reduced her income. She said corporate sponsors are “very scared” to work with her, leading to the loss of college‑speaking engagements and branding deals that had supplemented her acting work after her breakout role on Netflix’s Orange Is the Black.

Cox explained that she had previously been free of savings, carrying student‑loan debt before her fame, but the recent DEI cutbacks forced her to dip into a retirement fund she had only recently built. She described the financial impact as “losing so much money because of this administration, the past year.” The comments were made in two separate interviews published in late 2025, both highlighting the broader effect of the administration’s punitive stance toward gender‑related initiatives on individual earners in the entertainment industry.