Federal & State Governments Are Rooting Out DEI & ESG

Following President Donald Trump’s executive orders to root out and eliminate ESG and DEI policies from government agencies and departments, it might be easy to think the war against these destructive ideas is won.

Radical leftists are losing voter support for ESG and DEI at the ballot box, in legislative chambers around the country, and in public opinion. But sadly, any attempt to declare victory regarding the end of ESG or DEI would be wrong. Ultraleft activists and entrenched government bureaucrats who support these polices are working overtime to rename ESG and DEI rules so they attract less attention but are still enforced. 

ESG (environmental, social, and governance) and DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) sound innocent, and that’s the point. Nestled within these two seemingly innocuous acronyms (who could be against inclusion?) are radical, insidious, and anti-American agendas. 

Going through the letters “ESG,” the realities become apparent. “Environmental” really means climate alarmism and eliminating the safest, most affordable, and most reliable energy sources in favor of solar and wind, which are as unreliable as they are unaffordable. “Social” is where DEI lives with racial quotas for hiring, discriminating based on skin color, and the worst elements of gender ideology. And “governance” underpins it all by manipulating our free enterprise system to take control of companies and turn them into tools for the woke. 

It’s all a scheme to package the woke Left’s agenda and to fundamentally change America for the worse, making it unrecognizable. It is moving us from a meritocracy that values hard work and rewards success to a kakistocracy. Particularly insidious is that this allows the Left to implement the worst elements of its agenda without winning elections, without passing laws in Congress or state legislatures, and without any of us having a say in our nation’s future. 

There is, however, positive momentum. Many state policymakers have been sounding the alarm for years, but this year the movement against ESG and DEI achieved critical mass. Trump has issued three executive orders targeting DEI (Executive Order 14151, Executive Order 14173, and Executive Order 14168) and two targeting ESG (Executive Order 14154 and Executive Order 14259). 

These orders terminated all DEI positions in the federal government, banned contractors from using it in hiring, directed the Department of Justice to investigate civil rights violations related to its use in the private sector, directed the U.S. attorney general to block enforcement of state and local ESG laws, and rescinded all Biden ESG and DEI executive orders. 

The Trump administration has taken unprecedented steps to weed out DEI and ESG from both the public and private sectors, ending programs and cutting funding. The Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport lost over $37 million in grants when it refused to end DEI. The Trump administration also halted $18 billion in funding for infrastructure projects in New York City due to concerns about the city’s DEI policies. 

State governments have also acted. So far, 22 states have banned or restricted DEI and ESG. Earlier this year, financial officers from 21 states sent a warning letter to the nation’s largest banks, urging them to end woke investing policies. 

Texas enacted a parental bill of rights that ends DEI and bans instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation in public K-12 schools. In Indiana, State Attorney General Todd Rokita moved to block state contracts with law firms that have DEI initiatives following an executive order from Gov. Mike Braun. 

Before stepping down in August to become a deputy director of the FBI, former Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey sued IBM and Starbucks for their discriminatory DEI policies and launched an investigation into two foreign-owned proxy advisory firms for promoting ESG. 

Despite all this progress, victory celebrations would be premature. Sal Nuzzo, executive director of Consumers Defense, which works to protect American consumers from ESG and woke companies, warns: 

“ESG isn’t dead, it’s simply rebranding. The radicals on the Left are publicly proclaiming that they have seen the light while at the same time simply changing the terms to things like ‘sustainability’ and ‘transparency’ in the hopes of waiting out the current momentum. We forget this to our detriment.” 

ESG and DEI aren’t just bad ideas—they are destructive forces that must be eradicated. They harm our economy, divide our country, and increasingly violate state and federal laws. Those who want to change the very fabric of America will not simply concede and surrender. We all must remain vigilant to recognize the next iterations of ESG and DEI and continue to root them out. 

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