Right-wing activist Robby Starbuck declared another win last week, and it was a big one.

Walmart Inc., America’s largest private-sector employer, is rolling back some of its diversity efforts. It will end its sharing of data with LGBTQ+ advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign, stop using the terms DEI and Latinx in its official communications and shutter its Center for Racial Equity after its five-year, $100 million commitment expires next year. The retailing giant will also stop considering demographic data when awarding supplier contracts and evaluate its funding of events like Pride parades.

Starbuck is taking credit for all of it.

It sets a chilling tone for corporate America’s diversity efforts that a company with the resources of Walmart is pulling back on its commitment to DEI. But it’s even worse that Walmart is allowing Starbuck to give the impression that he and his movement are fully responsible for the reversal.

Starbuck’s crusade to eradicate “wokeness” from corporate America has followed a similar pattern: Target a company with a conservative customer base like Harley-Davidson Inc., Deere & Co. or Tractor Supply Co. “Expose” the company’s commitment to diversity and inclusion or its investments in combatting climate change. Threaten a boycott. Continue an aggressive social media campaign until the company acquiesces and puts out a statement saying it will do things like end its sponsorship of Pride events and eliminate DEI roles and goals.

That’s not what happened with Walmart. There was no public campaign. Both Starbuck and Walmart said they had been in discussions behind the scenes, but the public didn’t know about it until Starbuck posted on X about the changes. “Our campaigns are now so effective that we’re getting the biggest companies on earth to change their policies without me even posting a story outlining their woke policies,” he wrote.

But some of the concessions that Starbuck takes credit for aren’t really concessions at all. For example, Walmart had already started to phase out the term DEI, last year hiring a chief belonging officer rather than a chief diversity officer. And long before Starbuck came along, Walmart, like many companies, had been looking at making changes to its supplier diversity programs in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision banning affirmative action in college admissions.

In some cases, Walmart did not go as far as Starbuck’s other targets. While companies like Lowe’s Cos. Inc. and Ford Motor Co. agreed to stop funding Pride parades and celebrations after pressure from Starbuck, Walmart instead said it would review funding of events that could be sexually inappropriate for kids. (Who gets to decide whether something is inappropriate is a different matter.) A spokesperson also told HR Brew that it remained committed to its employee resource groups, which most companies have weakened after becoming a Starbuck target.

While Starbuck gloated, Walmart stayed quiet. The company has not put out any official press release, letting Starbuck break the news and drive the narrative. It all reads like a cooperative communications effort between the two parties — likely the result of behind-the-scenes negotiations that probably looked something like this: Starbuck got to break the news, claim victory and take credit, while Walmart preempted a nasty public battle but didn’t have go as far as other companies in order to get Starbuck to go away.

Starbuck has in many ways done Walmart a favor, giving the company cover to walk back its DEI commitments as the business community prepares for a Trump administration that will only intensify the backlash and legal risks to anything considered “woke.” Unlike Starbuck’s other targets, Walmart’s customer base does not lean clearly left or right. It has stores in every state and serves some 225 million shoppers every week around the globe. The company is trying to walk a fine line by neither endorsing nor countering Starbuck’s larger message that “this is a massive win for our movement” and that “Walmart is setting a great example for other companies.”

Walmart is perfectly capable of standing up to bullies like Starbuck when it wants to. In 2015, Rosalind Brewer, then-CEO of Walmart’s Sam’s Club division, received death threats after talking about the importance of diversity on CNN. The company immediately backed her, with CEO Doug McMillon putting out a statement saying, “For years, we’ve asked our suppliers to prioritize the talent and diversity of their sales teams calling on our company. Roz was simply trying to reiterate that we believe diverse and inclusive teams make for a stronger business. That’s all there is to it and I support that important ideal.”

It’s telling we’ve seen no such message from McMillon this time around. Instead, the company said in an emailed statement, “We are willing to change alongside our associates and customers who represent all of America,” adding that “every decision comes from a place of wanting to foster a sense of belonging, to open doors to opportunities for all our associates, customers and suppliers and to be a Walmart for everyone.”

A nice sentiment, but one that ignores that fact that some of those associates, customers and suppliers will feel abandoned by the company’s shift.

Most cowardly of all is letting Starbuck paint Walmart’s decision as his doing. If Walmart, with its scale and resources, is perceived as backing down, it sends the message to other companies that they don’t stand a chance and therefore shouldn’t bother to resist. Starbuck is right that the company is setting an example for the rest of corporate America. And it’s a dangerous one.

Beth Kowitt is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering corporate America. She was previously a senior writer and editor at Fortune Magazine.