The Trump administration has opened an investigation into the Walt Disney Company’s DEI practices.

On Thursday, Brendan Carr, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, sent a letter to Disney CEO Bob Iger saying the media behemoth was under investigation over its use of diversity, equity, and inclusion in hiring.

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“In particular, I want to ensure that Disney and ABC have not been violating FCC equal employment opportunity regulations by promoting invidious forms of DEI discrimination,” Carr wrote in the letter, which was obtained by Business Insider.

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Carr claimed he has the authority to investigate Disney, which counts legacy network ABC as part of its sprawling portfolio, because ABC is a regulated entity.

He wrote that the Communications Act and commission rules prohibit media companies “from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, age or gender.”

Carr didn’t point to specific Disney content, but cited reports of initiatives that “would amount to segregated affinity groups and spaces.” 

The FCC chair announced a similar investigation into Comcast, corporate owner of MSNBC, last month.

Earlier in March, Disney shareholders overwhelmingly rejected a right-wing investor group’s demand that the company withdraw its participation in the Human Rights Campaign’s annual Corporate Equality survey.

At the same time, Iger has made a public show of accommodating Donald Trump since his election, cutting planned storylines and characters that would draw his scrutiny, adding new ones that might appease more conservative viewers, and resolving longstanding litigation in the president’s favor.

Last fall, the Mouse House settled a defamation suit filed by Trump as a private citizen, committing $15 million to Trump’s presidential library and agreeing to pay $1 million in attorneys’ fees in a case complaining about comments made by ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos.

Since then, Disney has refashioned its DEI efforts to focus on “belonging.” A diversity and inclusion metric has been replaced with a “Talent Strategy” factor in executive compensation planning, while the company’s Reimagining Tomorrow initiative has evolved into a new inclusion framework on the company’s corporate impact website. 

Carr cited Reimagining Tomorrow in his letter, contending the Disney initiative was “a mechanism for advancing its DEI mission.” He also claimed ABC implemented mandatory “inclusion standards” that “may have forced racial and identity quotas into every level of production.”

Carr’s efforts can be traced to Trump’s retribution campaign against legacy media companies, or what the president terms “fake news.”

Shortly after his elevation to FCC chair in January, Carr reinstated a complaint against ABC over how David Muir and Linsey Davis moderated the 2024 presidential debate. Carr also revived a complaint against CBS over how 60 Minutes edited an interview with Kamala Harris and a third against NBC over Harris’ pre-election cameo on Saturday Night Live. All three complaints to the FCC were lodged by the right-wing Center for American Rights.

Carr has said he’ll use the FCC’s power to block media company mergers in Trump’s fight against DEI and the legacy media companies he says are arrayed against him.

Last week, Carr enlisted anti-LGBTQ+ activist Robby Starbuck to help him block major media mergers over diversity issues.

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