Meet the most feared man in America… And no, it’s not Donald Trump

Robby Starbuck may be the most feared man in America. He’s 6ft 2in and carries a gun – but he’s not an assassin or terrorist. Some might say he is more dangerous.

Starbuck is an anti-woke warrior achieving success that is astonishing – or disturbing, depending on your perspective – leading the charge in the culture wars and changing the face of the nation. His campaign has been taken up by newly elected President Trump, determined to rid the federal government of woke policies, just as Starbuck is doing on a broader scale in corporate America.

But Starbuck carries a gun because of the numerous death threats he receives. “If the whole world hated me I’d be okay with that, as long as I was doing the right thing,” he says. “At least I have a way to defend myself.”

Though critics warn he is dismantling social advances that promote equality and protect vulnerable minorities, Starbuck is convinced he is doing the right thing, and millions of Americans apparently agree.

The 35-year-old Californian of Cuban descent, with a televangelist’s silver tongue and an American politician’s polished good looks, has single-handedly turned back the tidal wave of woke policies that swept the US in recent years, opening the door for Trump’s latest moves.

In a few short weeks the president has banned programmes known as DEI – diversity, equity and inclusion – in all government departments. But while Trump’s move instantly met a backlash of lawsuits, Starbuck has achieved far more by coercion.

Starbuck – no relation to the coffee giant – has brought some of America’s biggest corporations to their knees, forcing them to abandon their woke policies. He has bludgeoned corporate Goliaths simply by posting short videos on social media highlighting companies’ woke agendas, spearheading customer boycotts that have wiped billions of dollars off their share values.

More than 20 major companies including Boeing, Toyota, Ford, Harley-Davidson, Coors beer and Jack Daniels whiskey have all abandoned progressive social policies that they once claimed were vital to a profitable and healthy environment for staff, customers and stockholders, within weeks of Starbuck launching his campaigns.

Without prompting, Google joined the list this week, abandoning its DEI policies including hiring minorities. He targets DEI, rails against militant trans culture and companies that promote equality by race or gender rather than talent.

“The workplace should be for work, not politics,” he says, calling DEI a “Trojan horse for pushing left-wing ideologies.” And woke policies in UK corporations are equally ripe for boycott, Starbuck believes.

“Britain has adopted extremely dangerous woke policies and become a shadow of its former self,” he says. “It’s national suicide. It’s cultural suicide. People in Britain should be protesting against woke ideologies. Your wallet is a weapon that can peacefully shift the culture.”

He argues that corporate DEI programmes hire and promote minorities over better qualified white applicants, or support LGBTQ+ initiatives that ultimately “favour transitioning little kids” or “promoting sex to children” – a gross distortion, claim his critics.

“People are sick of DEI,” says Starbuck. “They’re tired of being discriminated against at work, tired of having some insane ideology shoved down their throat. If you inject wokeness into everybody’s lives you end up with a divided society.”

Harvard University sociology professor Frank Dobbin agrees: “A lot of white, middle-class Americans, working-class Americans, are pretty fed up with diversity programmes as they experienced them at work.” Many US and British companies began embracing DEI values after the 2020 police murder of George Floyd in Minnesota, and the Black Lives Matter protests that followed.

But the backlash against woke policies has been growing, and is certain to increase with ’s return to the White House next month (Jan).

Bud Light lost its place as America’s leading beer last year and lost around GBP 1.1 billion in sales when customers fled in reaction to a promotion featuring trans activist Dylan Mulvaney. Target stores saw sales plummet in response to its prominent gay pride month displays.

The anti-woke movement “has gained power in the economy across industries in forcing different companies to publicly distance themselves from DEI policies,” says industry analyst Sam Fiorani. “The potential that their stock price could be affected by it outweighs a lot of benefits that could be seen by the DEI moves. . . . It’s very difficult to take a stand and not see the product sales or stock price affected.”

Starbuck calls DEI reverse discrimination. “I don’t want my kids to have some special advantage in life or get a job more easily because they can check a box saying they’re Latino,” he says. “That’s the bigotry of low expectations, expecting that minorities are less capable than white people.

“We all agree that it’s wrong to discriminate against people based on race. But DEI does just that: it believes that certain races deserve special treatment, and other races are framed as oppressors. That’s a ludicrous ideology. Companies are starting to realise the whole DEI thing has been a house of cards. We’re at the beginning of the end for woke ideology. In the coming months, woke will be dead.”

Remarkably, Starbuck is a one-man action group. Though he has only 750,000 followers on X, his calls to action have been reposted billions of times.

“Everything we do is a result of the millions of people who amplify my words,” he says. “We’ve acted as a megaphone for the natural resentment that people have towards woke ideologies. Companies aren’t afraid of me because I’m this huge imposing figure; they’re afraid of the people behind me.’

Starbuck launched his first woke attack in June targeting farm goods giant Tractor Supply, and America’s biggest farm equipment manufacturer John Deere. “Tractor Supply lost $2.9 billion in market capitalisation,” Starbuck says of the aftermath of his campaign. “John Deere lost more than $10 billion in stock value. Some companies have tried to hold out for three or four weeks. It never works because we are relentless. We will not stop until they change.”

Starbuck’s attacks on Harley-Davidson’s woke policies saw sales plummet, and GBP 23,000 bikes were reportedly selling for £4,700. Every company he has targeted has surrendered.

Tractor Supply, with around 2,200 US stores and £11.7billion in annual revenue,, dumped its DEI policies including environmental and social initiatives. “We’ve heard from customers that we’ve disappointed them,” said a company statement announcing the retreat from DEI. “We have taken this feedback to heart.”

Confronted by Starbuck, supermarket giant Walmart, with two million global employees, is winding down its Centre for Racial Equity, which it launched in 2020 with a £78million grant, and will stop offering many LGBTQ+ themed products, such as chest binders for trans children.

Family values are paramount for Starbuck, whose mother and grandparents fled communist Cuba in the 1960s for America. He became a successful producer and director working with stars including Natalie Portman, Jamie Foxx and Snoop Dogg, but became disillusioned with ’s “degenerate” liberal mores.

He moved six years ago to a farm near Nashville, Tennessee, where he lives with his wife, four children, three dogs, two cats, two rabbits, cows and chickens. A “Liberty or Death” flag hangs in the home studio where he records his Robby Starbuck Show podcast.

With ’s reelection, Starbuck’s star is rising, and he is now advising incoming members of the Trump administration how to remove woke policies from government.

“I was talking with a major defence contractor who wants to get rid of their woke policies, which are required to win government contracts. With the Trump administration that’s going to go away. In future, companies with DEI will be less likely to get a government contract.”

Yet many DEI supporters believe it can help boost businesses’ success, and warn that surrendering to Starbuck’s “dangerous rhetoric” risks alienating employees and customers. Companies can’t ignore the American LGBTQ+ community’s estimated £1.1trillion annual spending power.

The National Black Farmers Association has called for a boycott of Tractor Supply and Deere farm equipment as the companies head in the “wrong direction” by capitulating to Starbuck. Yet many companies deem woke policies too risky to maintain.

“Wokeness is on the retreat,” Starbuck says, and Trump would surely agree. “Now our goal is annihilating this ideology in America. No industry should feel safe.”