President-elect Donald Trump vowed to ban environmental, social, or governance (ESG) investments during his second presidential term through executive order and negotiations with Congress.
ESG investing allows retirement fund managers to select stocks of companies based on their positions on social and other issues when making investment decisions instead of focusing on financial factors relative to the rate of return.
In 2020, Trump’s Department of Labor issued two rules banning ESG investments, which President Joe Biden quickly reversed by executive order in May 2021.
In 2022, the Department of Labor, under direction from the Biden-Harris administration, issued a rule encouraging national ESG investments.
“Climate change and other environmental, social and governance factors can be useful for plan investors as they make decisions about how to best grow and protect the retirement savings of America’s workers,” the Department of Labor declared at the time.
Since the Department of Labor issued the rule, states including Tennessee, Utah, Kentucky, West Virginia, Arkansas, Montana, and Florida have all passed legislation against the ESG rule.
In a video posted by his presidential campaign in February 2023, Trump said he would “immediately ban ESG investments through executive order and work with Congress to enact a permanent ban.”
“When I’m back in the White House, I will sign an executive order and with Congress’ support, a law to keep politics away from America’s retirement accounts forever,” Trump said.
“The entire ESG scheme is designed to funnel your retirement money to the maniacs on the radical left…I will demand that funds invest your money to help you, not them, but to help you. Not to help the radical left communists, because that’s exactly what they are. I will once again protect our seniors, just like I did before, from the woke left and the woke left is bad news. They destroy countries,” Trump added.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Donald Trump” by Donald Trump.
