Transgender actress Laverne Cox says Trump's attack on DEI has caused her to lose 'so much money' and claims brands are now 'scared' to work with her

Laverne Cox has revealed she's been negatively affected by President Donald Trump's stance against DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) programs.

The 54-year-old actress claimed she's lost a significant amount of career opportunities amid the Trump administration's continued scrubbing of the initiative.

'I've lost so much money because of this administration, the past year,' Cox told Attitude magazine in a new cover story. 

'I managed to stay busy with acting and branding work, as well as speaking engagements. But I never thought college speaking gigs would dry up.'

Before she found success on Netflix's Orange Is the New Black in 2013, Cox said she didn't have a savings or retirement fund, and was strapped with student loan debt.

'I was working really hard to get out of a financial hole. But then I was also working hard to try to lift up my community,' she shared.

The Emmy-winning star continued, 'When Orange Is the New Black came out in 2013, I didn't know how long that moment would last. I didn't know how successful it would or wouldn't be.'

Cox, whose memoir Transcendent hit shelves this month, has been engaging in public speaking throughout the country to 'humanize' trans people and highlight their experiences.

However, since Trump's second presidency began in 2025, she said multiple entertainment studios and media companies have shut down their DEI programs.

Cox said, 'This administration is very punitive with anything that suggests DEI or gender ideology, and corporations have been very scared. 

'The past year or two, I've had to dip into savings and my retirement fund. So, the blessing is that I finally have the privilege to have a retirement fund to dip into, but you don't really want to do that.'

This isn't the first time the star has voiced disappointment in Trump's politics and rhetoric.

In 2018, during Trump's first presidential term, Cox stressed the importance of people showing up to vote to preserve LGBTQ rights.

She told Gay Times: 'I like to remind myself and remind everybody that the current President of the United States won by about 80,000 votes across three states...'

Cox continued, 'It's not a lot of people, and his opponent won the popular vote. 

'That reminds me that it's important for every person to turn out and vote and let our voices be heard. It's a call and reminder that, just because we have rights now, it doesn't mean those rights won't be rolled back.' 

Cox said that the epidemic of violence against trans women minorities marks 'the intersection of racism and sexism and trans misogyny,' particularly when it comes to sex work.

'Trans women who are doing sex work are more likely to experience violence as well,' she stated at the time. 'Trans people are being forced into survival sex work so that's another reason.

'At the end of the day, we haven't had enough of a cultural shift where we can believe and understand that trans women are women. That is at the heart of why we're being murdered.'