What To Know
- Laverne Cox revealed she lost significant income after President Trump’s 2025 rollback of DEI programs.
- Cox shared that despite her acting and branding work, she has had to dip into her savings and retirement fund.
- She emphasized the broader effect on corporations and individuals advocating for DEI.
Orange Is the New Black star Laverne Cox just revealed that she “lost so much money” after President Donald Trump‘s DEI rollbacks.
During an interview with Attitude published in June, the Emmy-winning Black trans actor, 54, opened up about the effects of the POTUS signing executive orders ending federal Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs. Trump ended the initiatives immediately after taking office in January 2025.
“I’ve lost so much money because of this administration, the past year,” Cox shared. “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 snagging her OITNB role, Cox said she had no savings or retirement money and was navigating significant student loan debt.
“I was working really hard to get out of a financial hole,” she explained. “But then I was also working hard to try to lift up my community. When Orange 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.”
After Trump’s DEI rollbacks, Cox — who recently published a memoir titled Transcendent — said she has felt the impact. “This administration is very punitive with anything that suggests DEI or gender ideology, and corporations have been very scared,” she pointed out.
Cox also confessed, “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.”
In addition to playing Sophia Burset on all seven seasons of OITNB, which aired from 2013 to 2019, Cox is known for her roles in the TV series Clean Slate and the films Musical Chairs (2011) and Promising Young Woman (2020), among other projects.
Orange Is the New Black, streaming on Netflix