Target announced on Wednesday that CEO Brian Cornell is stepping down and will be replaced in February 2026. The announcement comes months after the company scrapped its diversity programs, echoing the Trump administration, and has experienced a significant sales decline.
Target said current Chief Operating Officer Michael Fiddelke would take over from Cornell. The company also revealed that in its most recent earnings, sales are down 1.9% from a year ago.
The disappointing earnings report and leadership change continue the ongoing financial turmoil for the retailer over the past year. Cornell admitted in an earnings call in May that the company was facing headwinds over declining consumer confidence, uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s tariff policies, and “the reaction to the updates we shared on belonging in January.”
The update in question was Target’s decision to abandon the company’s previous commitments to racial diversity, a move the company announced days after Trump’s inauguration.
Brian Cornell, the outgoing CEO of Target, speaks at a financial community meeting in 2019 in New York.
In January, just four days after Trump was sworn in, Target told employees in a memo that it would stop trying to meet previously announced diversity, equity, and inclusion goals and that it was killing a program featuring products from minority-owned businesses. Target also said it would stop reporting to the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, a benchmarking tool that measures corporations’ commitments to equitable business practices.
The retailer quickly found itself the target of a boycott led by Black churches, which described the action as a way to emphasize the spending power of Black consumers.
The Trump administration has put attacks on diversity at the forefront of its policy agenda as articulated by Trump, who has an extensive history of racism and other forms of bigotry. Central to this crusade is conservative antagonism to the concept of being “woke.” Originally used by racial justice advocates, the term has been adopted by the right as a slur to attack initiatives meant to boost racial, ethnic, and gender equality.
Conservatives have tried to argue that when companies go “woke” they end up going “broke,” but Target’s fumbles show the opposite. At the same time that projects embracing “woke” ideals are generating billions in revenue, Target’s decision to follow Trump appears to be hurting its bottom line.
