America’s defense sector should be focused on one thing above all else: building the most effective weapons systems, technologies, and capabilities in the world. At a time of mounting geopolitical tension and growing threats from major adversaries, the companies responsible for equipping the United States military cannot afford to be distracted by the woke ideologies that have consumed so much of corporate America.
As Secretary of War Pete Hegseth often says, “We want you fighting real wars, not culture wars.”
That’s a conversation we’ve been having with America’s biggest defense contractors for the past year. As corporate engagement professionals, we represent a clientele that ranges from major nonprofits to ordinary American investors, all united around one cause: getting politics out of corporate America. 
Nowhere, with the possible exception of health care, is this more critical than in our defense sector. As America protects its interests against one of our most outspoken geopolitical rivals, it’s abundantly clear that the companies behind our most advanced military capabilities need to be focused on creating powerful, innovative, and effective defense technology that defies our enemies and ensures continued American dominance.
Yet, to look at the past several years of activism in corporate America, it’s not entirely clear we’ve all been on the same page about that. For years, activists have been pounding on the doors of the American boardroom, attempting to foist a plethora of profoundly absurd ideas onto the companies tasked with protecting the country.
Perhaps part of that willingness comes as a consequence of just how bad the ideas from the other side have been. Many have been putting <a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/06/21/inside-bds-lefts-sneaky-targeting-israel-via-corporate-boardrooms/">anti-Israel proposals</a> on corporate ballots at companies, including Intel and Lockheed Martin, arguing for a reassessment of their relationship with Israel, and pushing for increasing numbers of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. These activists’ arguments are often simple, if not wildly anti-business: cut ties with Israel to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-esg-scores-became-the-new-weapon-in-the-war-on-israel">keep a good ESG score</a>. Implement more DEI initiatives or partnerships with organizations that <a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/06/21/inside-bds-lefts-sneaky-targeting-israel-via-corporate-boardrooms/">push gender ideology</a>, in order to demonstrate good corporate citizenship. 
These arguments ignore the fact that Lockheed’s and Intel’s relationships with Israel are major drivers of business value. They do not address the brand damage created by controversial corporate partnerships and divisive DEI initiatives in the workplace. They do not address the obvious moral questions of withholding critical defense infrastructure from a nation fighting a war against terrorist organizations seeking their annihilation. They do, however, parrot standard-issue talking points while calling for these companies to ditch major investments or adopt diversity programming that is difficult to justify on fiduciary grounds.
DEI quotas. Divestment based on politics. Dubious gender transition treatments. What you might think, from looking at that fairly diverse (no pun intended) slate of demands, is that those are different coalitions trying to drag American businesses off course. And in certain ways, they are. But in a very critical way, they all share one idea in common: that the business of defending the homeland isn’t enough.
As a director of corporate engagement firm Bowyer Research, I meet with companies to defend the opposite idea: core business is enough — and the notion that you have to add abortion reimbursement or DEI questionnaires to a corporation to make it moral is beyond ridiculous. And, unsurprisingly, the defense sector’s been quite on board with that idea.
We’ve been having <a href="https://bowyerresearch.substack.com/p/our-message-to-lockheed-martin-we">conversations</a> on these issues with some of America’s most prominent federal contractors, such as Lockheed Martin, RTX, General Dynamics, and others, urging them to distance themselves from past DEI initiatives, continue saying no to anti-Israel activism, and prioritize their core business. This work has been driven by our clients, including nonprofits such as <a href="https://www.heritage.org/press/heritage-enhances-free-enterprise-efforts-new-initiative-and-expanded-team">The Heritage Foundation</a> and financial professionals such as <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/capital-record/a-report-card-on-corporate-america/">David Bahnsen</a>, using their investment portfolios to engage with management at the companies they own.
This process, called corporate engagement, has, until recently, been almost exclusively the domain of left-of-center, ESG-aligned, DEI-aligned activist groups in past years. But no longer. The right-of-center is waking up and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-the-pro-sanity-coalition-is-winning-again-in-corporate-america?author=Isaac+Willour&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=3&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Why+The+Pro-Sanity+Coalition+Is+Winning+Again+In+Corporate+America">having tremendous success</a> in rolling back many biased policies implemented in past years. And this momentum has only been helped by President Trump’s 2025 <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-and-wasteful-government-dei-programs-and-preferencing/">executive order</a> rolling back government DEI initiatives. Lockheed Martin suspended identity-based employee workforce groups. RTX <a href="https://www.them.us/story/human-rights-campaign-hrc-northrop-grumman-rtx-weapons-manufacturers">exited</a> controversial public partnerships with groups such as the Human Rights Campaign, a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/corporate-america-quietly-backs-away-from-gender-ideology-for-children?author=Isaac+Willour&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Corporate+America+Quietly+Backs+Away+From+Gender+Ideology+For+Children">major promoter</a> of gender ideology. Boeing disclosed it would no longer incorporate DEI into its executive pay structure. And Texas Instruments <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/capital-record/a-report-card-on-corporate-america/">stopped</a> using the Southern Poverty Law Center’s ‘hate group’ list, which <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-the-southern-poverty-law-center-poisoned-corporate-america?author=Isaac+Willour&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=2&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=How+The+Southern+Poverty+Law+Center+Poisoned+Corporate+America">smears</a> mainstream conservative organizations like Turning Point USA and Alliance Defending Freedom as hateful, to vet charities.
Engaging with the defense sector about returning to political neutrality has largely been a good-faith effort. Companies have been willing to have serious conversations about making changes. Why? Beyond compliance, our engagement is often seen as a breath of fresh air — a welcome change from the activists who want defense companies to divest from our allies, adopt DEI agendas, and… do less defense. This is corporate engagement at its best: in our uncertain world, and amid a multiplicity of threats to the American way of life, genuine investors are asking companies to reaffirm and stand by their core business model: national defense, and with it the continuation of the greatest nation in the history of our species.
You don’t need supplier quotas or activist pledges to run that play. You need grit, determination, and merit to run that play with the American people in mind. And right now, America’s defenders are doing just that.
* * *
Isaac Willour is the director of corporate engagement at Bowyer Research, representing institutional investors before America’s biggest companies. He writes frequently on issues pertaining to business, faith, and culture, and can be found on X <a href="https://x.com/IsaacWillour">@IsaacWillour</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

FRANCE-POLITICS-DEFENCE-US-LOCKHEED

America’s Defense Sector Is Ditching DEI At The Best Possible Moment

Corporations

Defense

Department of War

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Lockheed Martin

Opinion

Pentagon

Woke Culture

President Donald Trump doesn&#8217;t usually heap praise on people who question capitalism and champion carbon reduction efforts.
Larry Fink seems to be the exception.
“Everything Larry touches turns to gold,” Trump said of the BlackRock CEO during his Wednesday speech at the World Economic Forum. “He made this [forum] very successful.”
At first glance, it&#8217;s not shocking to hear Trump praise Fink. BlackRock was first in line to help President Trump reclaim the Panama Canal, with Fink spearheading the effort himself. And Trump is reportedly considering BlackRock executive Rick Rieder to replace Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
But Trump&#8217;s affinity for Fink is curious considering the investment titan&#8217;s history of supporting exactly the kind of &#8220;woke&#8221; initiatives the Trump administration opposes.
At the 2020 World Economic Forum, Fink took the stage draped in a scarf stitched with a graphic depicting rising global temperatures over the previous 150 years. He warned that climate change posed an imminent threat to the world and the global financial system. 
That message carried into BlackRock’s corporate strategy. In his 2020 annual letter to shareholders, Fink said the world was on the brink of a “fundamental reshaping of finance,” insisting that “every government, company, and shareholder must confront climate change.”
“Behaviors are going to have to change,” Fink said at the time. “You have to force behaviors, and at BlackRock, we are forcing behaviors.” 
That leverage, Fink explained, came through voting power. 
“I have only one power,” he said. “And I’m going to use that power heavily and that is the power of the vote.” 
By managing trillions of dollars in passive retirement and index funds, BlackRock holds outsized ownership stakes across corporate America, giving the firm extraordinary influence over company policies regardless of whether individual investors or voters consent. 
In his 2021 letter to shareholders, he asked companies to issue “sustainability reports” detailing not only environmental risks but internal workforce policies. 
“As you issue sustainability reports, we ask that your disclosures on talent strategy fully reflect your long-term plans to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion, as appropriate by region,” he said. “We hold ourselves to this same standard.”
He also cautioned companies against drawing “stark lines’ within Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) frameworks, arguing that issues like climate change and racial inequality are interconnected. 
“Questions of racial justice, economic inequality, or community engagement are often classed as an &#8216;S&#8217; issue in ESG conversations. But it is misguided to draw such stark lines between these categories. For example, climate change is already having a disproportionate impact on low-income communities around the world – is that an E or an S issue? What matters is less the category we place these questions in, but the information we have to understand them and how they interact with each other. Improved data and disclosures will help us better understand the deep interdependence between environmental and social issues.” 
Then came the pivot. 
In 2024, Fink stunned the financial world by signaling political indifference. He said it “really doesn’t matter” who won the presidential race, arguing that both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris would be “good for Wall Street.” 
“At BlackRock, we work with both administrations,&#8221; Fink said, adding that the firm was in discussions with both candidates. 
Once Trump returned to office, the sense of urgency around climate change appeared to evaporate. By 2025, references to climate change and DEI had vanished entirely from Fink’s annual shareholder letter. In their place was a call for a large-scale investment in nuclear energy. “Wind and solar alone can’t reliably keep the lights on,” Fink wrote. 
Yet even as Fink appears aligned with Trump, some Republicans remain unconvinced that Fink has fully abandoned his old ways. The White House is reportedly mulling over an executive order that would limit how passive index fund managers like BlackRock participate in shareholder votes. And Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN) has suggested Congress may need to limit BlackRock’s voting power.
“Congress is going to have to play a role to ensure the big three passive firms — BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street—stop playing politics,” he said. 
Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins echoed the warning, signaling that regulators are prepared to rein in large institutional asset managers that “get out of line.” 
“There are two schools of thought within the GOP on BlackRock,” Vice President JD Vance <a href="https://x.com/JDVance/status/1665705692462825475">said</a> in 2023. “The old guard thinks they’re creating value and need to be rewarded with tax cuts. I think they&#8217;re destroying value and are engaged in illegal and immoral conduct.” 
It remains unclear which school of thought will win out in the GOP. For now, Fink seems firmly in Trump&#8217;s good graces. But just days before Trump extolled him at Davos, the president&#8217;s modern-day Midas offered a glimpse of the old Larry Fink.
“Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, more wealth has been created than at any time prior in human history,&#8221; Fink said in his speech kicking off the World Economic Forum. &#8220;But in advanced economies, that wealth has accrued to a far narrower share of people than any healthy society can ultimately sustain.”

U.S. President Trump Attends World Economic Forum In Davos

Larry Fink Led The Charge For Woke Capital. Why Does Trump Love Him So Much?

BlackRock

Donald Trump

Larry Fink

Wokeness

President Donald Trump took aim at two major financial firms he said were pushing racial quotas and climate activism onto American companies in an executive order on Thursday. 
The executive order accused the proxy advisor firms of Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis of pushing leftist politics into the shareholder voting process. Both companies control over 90% of the market for proxy advising in the United States and advise powerful clients on how to vote on shareholder proposals on things ranging from climate policy to board composition. 
“These proxy advisors regularly use their substantial power to advance and prioritize radical politically-motivated agendas — like ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ and ‘environmental, social, and governance’ — even though investor returns should be the only priority,” Trump wrote in his <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/12/protecting-american-investors-from-foreign-owned-and-politically-motivated-proxy-advisors/">executive order</a>. “For example, these proxy advisors have supported shareholder proposals requiring American companies to conduct racial equity audits and significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and one continues to provide guidance based on the racial or ethnic diversity of corporate boards.”
Glass Lewis has provided <a href="https://perma.cc/9JFW-HKEM">guidelines</a> recommending against boards with fewer than one member of “an underrepresented community.” It defines “underrepresented” as non-white people or sexual minorities. It will also generally recommend against a board “that fails to provide explicit disclosure concerning the board’s role in overseeing [climate change] issues.”
ISS has adopted similar <a href="https://perma.cc/N9TG-B7X9">guidelines</a>, noting that it will generally vote against companies with no women on the board, against boards with no racial or ethnic diversity, and vote against companies it says have not taken “minimum steps” to address “climate change” risks. 
“Their practices also raise significant concerns about conflicts of interest and the quality of their recommendations, among other concerns,” Trump wrote. “The United States must therefore increase oversight of and take action to restore public confidence in the proxy advisor industry, including by promoting accountability, transparency, and competition.”
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The executive order directed the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission to review all regulations related to proxy advisors and DEI mandates and directed the chair of the Federal Trade Commission to join state investigations into whether proxy advisors were violating unfair trade practices. It also calls for the attorney general and the secretary of labor to investigate the influence of proxy advising. 
Last month, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-florida-sues-major-financial-firms-over-dei-and-esg-push">filed a lawsuit</a> against ISS and Glass Lewis, accusing them of violating Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act and state antitrust laws. Both firms <a href="https://www.wsj.com/finance/regulation/proxy-advisers-iss-and-glass-lewis-are-facing-antitrust-probes-22f0ff38?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=AWEtsqc1i9ZlMDA8f3aZJiR2l7fRxLMEzpcyYRtsfyc4o8X1sQlk3u_hSRE9vvDqiKE%3D&amp;gaa_ts=691f1ec8&amp;gaa_sig=xwAM0c1b63ROAM2TrL-DyCp8Kzu_81NHpUXhlHCKKdp1uc0l_r4sb2vXNv1yUslNLkGqWHiK6ScdxjQHeJ7Tgw%3D%3D">are currently</a> under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission over how they direct clients on social and climate issues. 
In August 2023, the House Judiciary Committee launched an <a href="https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/letters.pdf">investigation</a> into ISS and Glass Lewis, probing their partnerships with climate activist groups and their push to “decarbonize” corporations.

US-POLITICS-TRUMP

Trump Targets Two Financial Firms Over DEI And ESG Push

Climate Change

finance

Florida has accused two massive proxy advisor firms of politicizing American retirement accounts by promoting DEI and ESG, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday.  
The suit from Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier accuses Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis of pushing companies to adopt race and sex-based quotas and embrace climate activism. The two firms comprise about 97% of the market for proxy advice in the United States, providing investment managers with guidance and research on how to vote on shareholder proposals. 
“Defendants have used this enormous influence to push their own dogmatic agenda,  one that seeks to require publicly traded companies to strictly adhere to highly controversial—and,  in some cases, illegal policies,” Uthmeier wrote in a copy of the lawsuit obtained by The Daily Wire. 
“Quotas for outright racial balancing, gender ideology that promotes genders beyond male and female, and an insistence that concerns about global climate change should influence every company&#8217;s decision-making are Defendants&#8217; basic requirements,” the suit added. 
Uthmeier&#8217;s suit, filed in the Second Judicial Circuit of Florida, accuses the companies of two counts of violating Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act and state antitrust laws. Both firms <a href="https://www.wsj.com/finance/regulation/proxy-advisers-iss-and-glass-lewis-are-facing-antitrust-probes-22f0ff38?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=AWEtsqc1i9ZlMDA8f3aZJiR2l7fRxLMEzpcyYRtsfyc4o8X1sQlk3u_hSRE9vvDqiKE%3D&amp;gaa_ts=691f1ec8&amp;gaa_sig=xwAM0c1b63ROAM2TrL-DyCp8Kzu_81NHpUXhlHCKKdp1uc0l_r4sb2vXNv1yUslNLkGqWHiK6ScdxjQHeJ7Tgw%3D%3D">are currently</a> under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission over how they direct clients on social and climate issues. 
Together, both firms work with hundreds of thousands of Florida employees’ retirement plans worth billions, according to the suit.
The suit states that the firms have pushed left-wing ideology by “recommending votes against corporate board members who are not the right gender or do not fall in line and affirmatively voice support for Defendants&#8217; ideological agenda.”
Examples cited in the suit include Glass Lewis providing <a href="https://perma.cc/9JFW-HKEM">guidelines </a>that include recommending against boards with less than one member of “an underrepresented community” on it. It defines “underrepresented” as non-white people or sexual minorities. It will also generally recommend against a board “that fails to provide explicit disclosure concerning the board’s role in overseeing [climate change] issues.”
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ISS has adopted similar <a href="https://perma.cc/N9TG-B7X9">guidelines</a>, noting that it will generally vote against companies with no women on the board, against boards with no racial or ethnic diversity, and vote against companies it says have not taken &#8220;minimum steps” to address “climate change” risks. 
“Florida is done allowing two unaccountable foreign-owned private corporations to manipulate shareholder votes behind closed doors,” Uthmeier told The Daily Wire. “ISS and Glass Lewis claim to be neutral advisors, but they use their near-total control of the proxy-voting market to push divisive political mandates that threaten retiree savings, distort corporate governance, and undermine the rule of law. That ends now.”
The suit was supported by Will Hild, the executive director of Consumers’ Research. 
“We will continue to encourage and support aggressive enforcement action until ISS and Glass Lewis stop their abuses and commit to transparency, neutrality, and true accountability to the investors and consumers they are supposed to serve,” he said. 
In August 2023, the House Judiciary launched an <a href="https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/letters.pdf">investigation</a> into ISS and Glass Lewis, probing their partnership with climate activist groups and pushing to &#8220;decarbonize&#8221; corporations.

National-Conservatism-Conference-in-Washington

EXCLUSIVE: Florida Sues Major Financial Firms Over DEI And ESG Push

EXCLUSIVE: Florida Sues Major Financial Firms Over DEI, ESG Push

Florida

Investors

Retirement

The retirement savings of millions of federal workers are being weaponized to push climate change and DEI mandates, a watchdog warned lawmakers. 
Financial asset giants BlackRock and State Street are leveraging their management over billions of dollars in federal employees’ retirement savings to push left-wing politics, according to a Monday <a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Hild-Letter-to-SCHSGA-and-HCOGR-RE-TSP.pdf">letter</a> to top Republican lawmakers from Consumers’ Research obtained by The Daily Wire. The pair manages around $668 billion in federal retirement savings through the Thrift Savings Plan, the federal government’s version of a 401(k) plan. 
“Asset managers like BlackRock using Americans’ hard-earned money to unfairly and illegally push radical political agendas without consent is hardly a new problem, but their control of most of the Thrift Savings Plan takes the scandal to a new level,” Consumers’ Research executive director Will Hild told The Daily Wire. “Flagrantly violating fiduciary duty with federal employee dollars begs for congressional scrutiny and more.”
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The letter was sent to House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chair James Comer (R-KY) and Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chair Rand Paul (R-KY). It requested that the lawmakers investigate the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board (FRTIB), the agency that administers the Thrift Savings Plan program. 
The letter says that the agency “has contracted with asset managers and proxy advisors that have pursued goals to impose emissions reductions and diversity quotas on companies, rather than focus solely on financial returns as required” by federal law. 
“Examples of BlackRock’s and State Street’s harmful conduct include: (1) using proxy voting power to push companies to adopt emissions targets; (2) maintaining commitments to climate-activist organizations in pursuit of Paris Agreement goals; (3) using internal proxy-voting guidelines that require using engagement and voting to pressure companies to align with net zero; (4) using pension fund assets to advance a net-zero agenda; and (5) succumbing to activist pressure to join climate groups and change their proxy voting to support activist proposals,” Hild wrote in the letter. 
An example of political policies being pushed by BlackRock included <a href="https://www.blackrock.com/corporate/literature/publication/annual-stewardship-report-2024.pdf">voting</a> in 2024 for a shareholder proposal to require Cracker Barrel to establish and publish greenhouse gas emissions targets. It backed similar proposals for companies like Jack in the Box, Wingstop, and Denny’s. 
Hild cited previous <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20241226122512/https:/www.ssga.com/library-content/assets/pdf/global/asset-stewardship/proxy-voting-and-engagement-policy.pdf">policies</a> by State Street to generally oppose company boards that are not “composed of at least 30-percent female directors” and “at least one director from an underrepresented racial/ethnic community.”
In recent years, BlackRock has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/blackrock-makes-major-change-after-backlash-against-woke-investing">backed away</a> from some of its more recent pushes for activist investing after widespread backlash. In April 2024, the Committee to Unleash Prosperity gave BlackRock a &#8220;B&#8221; for its voting record on &#8220;extreme&#8221; shareholder proposals, up from a &#8220;C&#8221; the previous year. The same report grades State Street as a &#8220;C.&#8221;
&#8220;BlackRock’s CEO, Larry Fink, had been one of the leading voices in support of ESG a few years ago. But last year, under pressure from groups like ours and others, he began to retreat from its ESG advocacy on proxy voting as shareholder proposals have become more extreme,&#8221; the report found.
BlackRock&#8217;s recent global voting <a href="https://www.blackrock.com/corporate/literature/publication/2025-investment-stewardship-voting-spotlight.pdf">spotlight</a> also highlighted that it voted with corporate management on 209 out of 214 votes in the Americas on climate and natural capital. &#8220;We again found that many of these proposals were over-reaching, lacked economic merit, or sought outcomes that were unlikely to promote long-term financial value,&#8221; the report said.
The letter also states that the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board relies on the Institutional Shareholder Services, a proxy advisory firm, for analysis of BlackRock and State Street’s proxy voting record. The firm is also “committed to environmental activism and imposing quotas on company boards,” Hild wrote. 
The agency utilizes quarterly analysis from the Institutional Shareholder Services to ensure that BlackRock and State Street vote in line with their written guidelines. 
“Reliance on ISS is contrary to [federal law’s] sole-interest standard, as ISS pursues an agenda that is incompatible with shareholder value and has made commitments to incorporate ESG into its processes. Contracting with ISS also raises concerns about ISS’s role in recommending votes that would inject race- and sex-based considerations into companies’ practices, which potentially violates federal and state civil rights laws,” Hild wrote. 
Hild wants Congress to press the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board to ensure that federal workers’ retirement savings are not being used to push politics. 
“The [FRTIB] owes the public answers, starting with whether it broke the law by allowing these notoriously woke firms to fund their ESG activism with millions of federal workers&#8217; savings. The longer that firms like BlackRock freely manage Thrift Saving Plan assets, the greater the danger to so many Americans&#8217; retirement security,” he said.

MixCollage-29-Sep-2025-11-26-AM-2253

Federal Retirement Dollars Used To Push Leftist Politics, Watchdog Warns

James Comer

Rand Paul

Joe Sanberg, a top California Democrat activist who decried the corruption of big Wall Street banks and started a company marketed as the &#8220;cleaner&#8221; alternative, actually propped that company up through blatant fraud, he admitted Thursday.
Sanberg and other high-profile Democrats started the carbon-credit platform and online banking app Aspiration Partners Inc., promising to plant trees and not invest in polluting industries. Its motto was &#8220;clean rich is the new filthy rich.&#8221; It was once a star of the &#8220;environmental, social, and governance (ESG)&#8221; movement that blended corporate finance with leftist politics, and counted actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert Downey Jr. as investors.
But it was instead a scheme as corrupt as any on Wall Street, with Sanberg concocting fake customers for his tree-planting services to try to dupe investors into a $2 billion valuation, the Department of Justice said. Sanberg faces up to 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of wire fraud, according to the <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/aspiration-partners-co-founder-charged-and-agrees-plead-guilty-248m-scheme-defraud-investors" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Department of Justice</a>.
Sanberg is a key player in California politics, a Gavin Newsom donor who personally spent $11 million backing a ballot initiative to raise the state&#8217;s minimum wage to $18 an hour. Voters blocked the initiative by one percentage point in 2024. A 2019 <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/03/joe-sanberg-mulls-long-shot-presidential-campaign/586087/">Atlantic</a> story headlined, &#8220;Joe Sanberg Dares Trump to Call Him a Socialist,&#8221; said &#8220;the multimillionaire investor says the Democrats’ progressive agenda is best for jobs and economic growth.&#8221;
But “this so-called ‘anti-poverty’ activist has admitted to being nothing more than a self-serving fraudster, by seeking to enrich himself by defrauding lenders and investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars,” according to Bill Essayli, the Acting U.S. Attorney of the Central District of California.
Aspiration was set up to have companies pay it for &#8220;carbon credits,&#8221; with Aspiration promising to pay third parties to plant trees in Africa that would offset their emissions. But the United States Postal Inspection Service said Sanberg &#8220;built a business on a lie to boost the company&#8217;s value and line his own pockets.&#8221;
The findings raise questions about the broader world of &#8220;carbon credits&#8221; and whether they amount to one big company paying another big company money in exchange for fantasy indulgences, based more on partisan marketing than any real-world impact.
Sanberg also faces civil <a href="https://www.sec.gov/files/litigation/complaints/2025/comp26382.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Securities and Exchange Commission charges</a> that say he propped up fake customers to bolster his appearance.
&#8220;To make it appear as though Aspiration’s business was rapidly growing, Sanberg recruited friends, associates, small businesses, and religious organizations and presented them to Aspiration as bona fide customers who were fully committed to paying large sums of money&#8221; for the tree-planting services,&#8221; the SEC charging documents explain.
In reality, they were not going to pay, and Sanberg himself funded initial payments purporting to be from the customers to make them look real.
&#8220;Through his fraud, Sanberg raised more than $300 million from investors who falsely believed Aspiration had a thriving environmental sustainability services business,&#8221; it says. Sanberg owned 30% of the company and took $100 million in loans backed by his shares.
Sanberg founded the company with Andrei Cherny, who worked for Bill Clinton and Al Gore, ran the Arizona Democratic Party, and ran for Congress in 2024. The SEC complaint said Sanberg texted Cherny in 2020 saying, &#8220;if you don’t get me the money tomorrow we are all f…ed. Get me the money. Your turn to figure it out like I have for so long. Wire it to the [Sanberg-entity] account. If you don’t then [the lender] will foreclose. This will give you a good taste of what I have to experience every day. I hate you and I hate this company and I don’t want to work anymore with you [ ]. You are so oblivious to what you’ve forced me to have to do.&#8221;
In 2021, Aspiration attempted to go public through a SPAC, giving prospective investors projections based on the fraud, the SEC said. The &#8220;greenwashing&#8221; firm touted that revenue was &#8220;up 584%&#8221; due in part to &#8220;Enterprise Sustainability Services.&#8221; That year, the company funneled $3.6 million to Sanberg, with Cherny signing a $475,000 contract, for example, &#8220;in exchange for Joseph Sanberg&#8217;s services related to Aspiration&#8217;s Sustainable Impact Services.&#8221;
Sanberg aligns himself publicly with unions, but privately, management sacked the company. In January 2022, the board gave him an $8 million cash bonus, &#8220;despite having low cash reserves.&#8221; That year, Aspiration had $104 million in revenue that didn&#8217;t actually exist, and its outside auditor resigned due to &#8220;characteristics of fraud.&#8221;
The effort to go public through a SPAC collapsed in 2023, but not before taking $300 million from investors, including former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
The investigation that began during the Biden administration after Sanberg and another investor, board member, and high-profile Democrat donor, Ibrahim Alhusseini, stiffed a lender. When the lender sued, documents unearthed in discovery showed that Alhusseini had gotten the loans based on fake financial statements.
<div id="attachment_854215" style="width: 1017px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-854215" class="size-large wp-image-854215" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-517390558-1007x576.jpg" alt="Actress and activist Jane Fonda embraces Ibrahim AlHusseini at a Champions of our Planet's Future gala in 2016 in Beverly Hills. (Photo by Michael Buckner/Variety/Penske Media via Getty Images)" width="1007" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-517390558-1007x576.jpg 1007w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-517390558-300x172.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-517390558-768x439.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-517390558-1536x879.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-517390558-2048x1172.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1007px) 100vw, 1007px" />Actress and activist Jane Fonda embraces Ibrahim AlHusseini at a Champions of Our Planet&#8217;s Future gala in 2016 in Beverly Hills. (Photo by Michael Buckner/Variety/Penske Media via Getty Images)</div>
That matter was referred to the FBI, which said that AlHusseini sent investors falsified bank statements that made it seem like he had assets “worth between approximately $80 million to $200 million&#8230;. In fact, AlHusseini’s brokerage account during this period held between approximately $2,000 and $15,000.&#8221; The fake bank statements had a telltale sign of all ending in dollar amounts with 43 cents.
The Daily Wire exclusively reported that AlHusseini, who is from Saudi Arabia and was a board member for the far-left, anti-Israel group CodePink, was arrested last October and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-green-investor-climate-change-activist-charged-with-securities-fraud" target="_blank" rel="noopener">held in jail</a> until December, when wealthy Democrat environmentalists, including CodePink founder Jodie Evans, put up their homes as $3 million bail.
Prosecutors said AlHusseini was a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/career-doj-prosecutor-dismissed-fraud-case-against-dem-megadonor-hours-before-trump-took-office" target="_blank" rel="noopener">flight risk</a> as he transferred $300 million to Saudi Arabia, and put his Venice mansion in his brother&#8217;s name. A New York civil court found him in contempt of court for avoiding paying the lender he stiffed, while—as the lender told the judge—he “donated at least US $22,100.00 to United States political candidates” such as Cori Bush and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and spent $16,000 at the Four Seasons hotel in Greece and $10,000 on Gucci clothes in New York.
Alhusseini turned on Sanberg, who was himself <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/california-politico-and-anti-poverty-activist-arrested-for-alleged-green-finance-fraud" target="_blank" rel="noopener">arrested</a> in March, The Daily Wire reported.
Sanberg was <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190328043932/https://www.ozy.com/politics-and-power/is-this-blue-apron-investor-aiming-for-the-white-house-on-a-poverty-platform/90556">reportedly considering</a> a Democratic presidential run ahead of the 2020 election, traveling to meet with party activists in early primary states. He was a fierce defender of California&#8217;s Newsom during the 2021 attempt to recall the governor.

Joe Sanberg

California ‘Anti-Poverty Activist’ And Dem Mega-Donor Pleads Guilty To Massive Carbon-Credit Scam

California

Environment

Fraud

A left-wing organization is pumping money into an effort to kill legislation that would prevent banks from denying loans to farmers based on political considerations. The organization, The Daily Wire has learned, has ties to a deeper network of far-left groups, including one that appears to be flush with foreign money.
Unlocking America’s Future is <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/?active_status=all&amp;ad_type=all&amp;country=US&amp;is_targeted_country=false&amp;media_type=all&amp;search_type=page&amp;view_all_page_id=163734473485371">running ads</a> on Facebook targeting North Carolina and opposing legislation that would <a href="https://www.carolinajournal.com/house-agriculture-committee-approves-anti-esg-farmers-protection-act/">prevent</a> banks from denying loans to farmers based on controversial environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics. The group has spent just shy of $30,000 on Facebook ads from early July to early August.
The legislation, its Republican sponsors say, would prevent farmers from being compelled to go along with a political agenda and ensure that lending remains “based upon whether they have good credit or not but not based upon their ESG score.”
But Unlocking America’s future is just a trade name used by an organization set up by established left-wing organizations to bolster Biden in the 2020 election.
Unlocking America’s Future, <a href="https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_dc/EXTUID_4337124">according</a> to a non-profit database and the Washington, D.C., corporate registry, is a trade name used by Climate Power. This left-wing organization was created in the lead-up to the 2020 election as a <a href="https://www.eenews.net/articles/this-climate-group-has-80m-to-help-biden/">joint project</a> of the Sierra Club, the American Progress Action Fund, and the League of Conservation Voters. The group came on the scene with $80 million ready to deploy in an effort to boost then-candidate Joe Biden.
Under the name “Unlocking America’s Future,” the organization has launched an ad campaign opposing the Farmers Protection Act, targeting Raleigh and other areas with paid ads calling on several state representatives and Governor Josh Stein to reject the proposal.
“Billionaires want to force banks to ignore financial risks, putting North Carolina’s economic future at risk,” read the paid Facebook ads, which began in late May and have continued into August. “Stand up for North Carolina’s economic future by focusing on responsible investing, lowering costs, and creating jobs.”
While the ads grandstand against “billionaires” attempting to exert influence on North Carolina’s politics, the organization has ties to a network of left-wing activist groups tied to a Swiss billionaire.
Climate Power is a project of the Fund for a Better Future, which has been <a href="https://apnews.com/article/dark-money-democrats-wyss-politics-elections-601d40cd01569190559d545418afe396">scrutinized</a> as a vehicle that’s allowed foreign money to flood into American politics through issue-advocacy groups, allowing foreigners to exert influence on America’s politics despite a prohibition on foreign donors directly bankrolling candidates for public office.
Swiss billionaire and prominent left-wing donor Hansjörg Wyss was a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/dark-money-democrats-wyss-politics-elections-601d40cd01569190559d545418afe396">major backer</a> of the Fund for a Better Future, the Associated Press reported as Climate Power sought to boost Biden’s legislative agenda and support Democratic congressional candidates.
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Climate Power has also pushed the diversity, equity, and inclusion agenda, at least internally, according to organization documentation. The organization’s 2023 registration form reveals that the group employed racially discriminatory practices when selecting board members.
“The makeup of the board shall be reflective of the diversity of the progress movement and the corporation staff,” the document reads. “The board should not be less than approximately 40% Board members who identify as Black, Indigenous, or People of Color and 51% of Board members who identify as women.”
“The corporation shall use best efforts to ensure that the diversity of the Board is no lesser than the diversity of staff.” it goes on to add.
Climate Power did not respond to a request for comment.

Hansjorg Wyss

Leftist Network With Foreign Ties Tries To Kill Bill Protecting Farmers From ESG Agenda

Banking

Banks

Dark Money

Donors

Environmentalism

North Carolina

A Kentucky Republican running to replace Senator Mitch McConnell deleted multiple environmental-themed tweets just months before launching his campaign, a Daily Wire review found.
Businessman Nate Morris deleted a number of tweets promoting environmentalist concepts and celebrating “World Environment Day” in early 2025, just months before launching his Senate campaign. Morris, the CEO of Morris Industries, has <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/congressional/3466274/deleted-dei-posts-culture-war-kentucky-senate-gop-primary/">pledged</a> to fight diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment mandates if elected, saying his experience as a businessman showed him the need to “end this crap.” 
Morris is running an anti-establishment campaign to replace McConnell, accusing his opponents — Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY) and former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron (R) — of being the former Senate Majority Leader&#8217;s puppets. He has <a href="https://natemorris.com/">pledged</a> to support mass deportations, opposing amnesty, banning doctors from doing transgender procedures on kids, cutting federal funding to woke schools, opposing gun control, and backing President Donald Trump’s tariff policies. 
The deleted tweets included multiple posts promoting the concept of a circular economy, a movement <a href="https://www.epa.gov/circulareconomy/what-circular-economy">defined</a> by the Environmental Protection Agency as a model that “keeps materials and products in circulation for as long as possible” and “an important part of slowing climate change.” The concept, promoted by organizations like the <a href="https://www.weforum.org/stories/circular-economy/">World Economic Forum</a> and the <a href="https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/circular_economy_14_march.pdf">United Nations</a>, frequently comes alongside government regulations and mandates. 
“A Circular economy generates no waste. To get to that point, we will need to change minds and change habits. #EnvironemntalInnovation,” Morris wrote in a May 8, 2020, tweet that has now been deleted. 
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-954845" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/May-8-2020-deleted-tweet.png" alt="" width="1462" height="1189" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/May-8-2020-deleted-tweet.png 1462w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/May-8-2020-deleted-tweet-300x244.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/May-8-2020-deleted-tweet-708x576.png 708w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/May-8-2020-deleted-tweet-768x625.png 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1462px) 100vw, 1462px" /></div>
On June 5, 2020, Morris shared an article called “A Future Without Waste,” writing: “Changing habits. Changing minds. Changing the world in small and difficult – yet impactful – steps. There can be no alternative. #WorldEnvironmentDay #EnvironmentalInnovation.”
Two other tweets from around the same time were deleted related to the “circular economy,” include one from June 29, 2020, where he wrote “we must do everything in our power to create a truly circular, free market economy and make the planet a better place for future generations” and another from July 10, 2020 sharing an <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/editor-can-circular-economy-help-reduce-waste">article</a> from National Geographic that said that a circular economy could “save the world.” 
“I’m glad to see [National Geographic] raising awareness about the critical need to move toward a [circular economy]. It is a realistic goal and we can make it happen through [American innovation],” he wrote. 
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-954851" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/July-10-2020-deleted-tweet.png" alt="" width="1387" height="1182" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/July-10-2020-deleted-tweet.png 1387w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/July-10-2020-deleted-tweet-300x256.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/July-10-2020-deleted-tweet-676x576.png 676w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/July-10-2020-deleted-tweet-768x654.png 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1387px) 100vw, 1387px" />
The tweets were all deleted in early 2025, prior to the launching of the Senate campaign in June on Donald Trump Jr.&#8217;s &#8220;Triggered&#8221; podcast. 
In a statement to The Daily Wire, Trump Jr. vouched for Morris’s anti-ESG credentials. 
“Few people have been more outspoken against ESG and woke capital than me over the past five years, and I can say with total certainty that Nate is 100% aligned with us on supporting the parallel economy, combating ESG, and destroying woke capital once and for all,” he said.
“Nate hasn’t just talked the talk on these issues either — he actually put his money where his mouth is and invested in Vivek Ramaswamy’s anti-ESG investment fund.&#8221;
In July 2024, Morris Industries <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240725415339/en/Morris-Industries-Invests-in-Series-B-Round-of-Strive-Enterprises">invested</a> in Strive, an anti-woke wealth management venture backed by Ramaswamy.
In recent months, Morris Holdings removed renewable drinking water company Source Global from its list of select holdings on its website. Source Global includes major investors like BlackRock, Bill Gates, and Duke Energy. 
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-954879" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/Screenshot-2025-07-30-at-3.25.50-PM.png" alt="" width="811" height="911" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/Screenshot-2025-07-30-at-3.25.50-PM.png 811w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/Screenshot-2025-07-30-at-3.25.50-PM-267x300.png 267w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/Screenshot-2025-07-30-at-3.25.50-PM-513x576.png 513w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/Screenshot-2025-07-30-at-3.25.50-PM-768x863.png 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 811px) 100vw, 811px" />
“Nate does not have a meaningful position in Source Global, which is why it no longer appears on the Morris Holdings website,” Morris campaign spokesman Conor McGuinness told The Daily Wire. “At no point has Nate ever advocated for government-mandated anything.&#8221;
Previously <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/congressional/3466274/deleted-dei-posts-culture-war-kentucky-senate-gop-primary/">deleted</a> blog posts from Morris’ time as CEO of Rubicon, a large recycling company, have come under scrutiny for their promotion of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and Environmental Social and Governance (ESG). For example, in <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20250418092835/https:/www.rubicon.com/blog/elizabeth-montoya-board-of-directors/">one post</a> from September 2020, Morris praised a new board member of Rubicon for helping the company remain “at the forefront of the ESG movement.”
In another <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20250312153932/https:/www.rubicon.com/blog/we-must-listen-we-must-lead/">deleted post</a> from June 1, 2020, Morris wrote that he was “feeling profound sadness and anger at the tragic events of recent weeks&#8221; in the wake of the death of George Floyd. 
“The protests we are seeing are a manifestation of the pain and anger that so many are feeling,” he wrote. “While it is important that we understand that pain and anger, it cannot bring back the lives that have been lost or undo the past injustices that have plagued our nation for generations. That pain and anger must fuel real, measurable, and decisive action to light a better path forward.”
Another <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20250513063137/https:/www.rubicon.com/news/rubicon-global-joins-ceo-action-diversity-inclusion/">pos</a>t highlighted Morris’ decision to sign a DEI commitment, which included pledges “to have complex discussions about diversity and inclusion, to implement and expand upon unconscious bias education, and to share best and unsuccessful diversity and inclusion practices.”
“I was at Rubicon when it got its first round of funding in 2011 and returned a decade later when it was a more mature business. Nate was always known to be a conservative Republican and a Trump supporter; it was no secret, really,” Graham Salazar, former employee of Rubicon, told The Daily Wire.
“While he wasn’t overtly political at work, he did push back against progressive employees who wanted to bring more activism into the company culture. That kind of pressure was common in startups, and it was obvious he didn’t go along with it.”
Barr and Cameron, Morris&#8217;s main opponents, have accused the businessman of exaggerating his conservative credentials, criticizing him in particular over the Rubicon DEI pledge.

2022 Concordia Lexington Summit – Reception

Republican Senate Candidate Deleted Environmentalist Tweets Before Launching Campaign

Donald Trump Jr.

Kentucky

Senate

Hold onto your loofahs, folks — Dr. Squatch, the rugged soap brand marketed toward dudes who love a good scrub, just <a href="https://www.unilever.com/news/press-and-media/press-releases/2025/unilever-to-acquire-mens-personal-care-brand-dr-squatch/">dove</a> headfirst into the glittery arms of Unilever, the mega-corp that’s all about <a href="https://www.unilever.com/news/news-search/2022/building-equity-and-equality-with-pride/#:~:text=Recognising%20our%20own%20uneven%20landscape,of%20support%20for%20LGBTQI+%20rights.">rainbow flags</a>, abortion <a href="https://cosmeticsbusiness.com/beauty-brands-pledge-to-protect-staff-from-roe-v-wade-overturning-201829#:~:text=%E2%80%9CWe%20will%20cover%20travel%20expenses%20for%20any,employees%20with%20%E2%80%9Ccomprehensive%20reproductive%20health%20care%20benefits%E2%80%9D.">travel perks</a>, and saving the planet one <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/unilever-alan-jope-company-will-not-back-down-sustainability-agenda">ESG</a> checklist at a time.
Dr. Squatch will now join Dove — <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wokest-wash-around-heres-how-dove-has-pushed-woke-nonsense">the wokest wash around</a> — Axe, and TRESemmé under the umbrella of Unilever personal care products. 
“I am thrilled to welcome Dr. Squatch into the Unilever family. Dr. Squatch has built a solid foundation and loyal following with highly desirable products and clever digital engagement strategies. Building on its success in the US, we are excited to scale the brand internationally and complement our offering in the fast-growing men’s personal care segment,” <a href="https://www.unilever.com/news/press-and-media/press-releases/2025/unilever-to-acquire-mens-personal-care-brand-dr-squatch/">said</a> Fabian Garcia, the president of Unilever Personal Care. 
Now, Unilever isn’t just about clean bodies — they’re all in on woke vibes too. They’re waving the pride flag high, footing the bill for employees’ out-of-state abortion trips, and <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/unilever-alan-jope-company-will-not-back-down-sustainability-agenda">preaching</a> the gospel of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals like it’s their day job. 
While some brands are hitting the brakes on woke agendas after public shade, Unilever’s like, “Nah, we’re flooring it!” Along with pushing abortion and LGBT propaganda, Unilever has also <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/unilever-alan-jope-company-will-not-back-down-sustainability-agenda">supported</a> the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) pushed by leftist climate activists. 
“We have been driving an ambitious sustainability agenda for over two decades. Yet, in the face of ever-growing economic, environmental and social challenges, we are evolving our approach,” Unilever <a href="https://www.unilever.com/sustainability/">said</a>. “Ringing the alarm and setting long-term ambitions isn&#8217;t good enough anymore. Now is the time to focus on delivering impact by making sustainability progress integral to business performance. We are determined to face into this reality to deliver consistent and competitive performance, while transforming our business to achieve our sustainability goals.” 
Unilever <a href="https://www.unilever.com/sustainability/climate/">says</a> that it will continue to advocate for the “fight against climate change,” vowing “to reduce emissions across our value chain.” 
This is the company Dr. Squatch decided to sell its soul to. The news came shortly after Dr. Squatch ran one of the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/not-woke-just-weird-dr-squatch-makes-soap-with-sydney-sweeneys-bath-water">strangest marketing campaigns</a>, selling a soap that is infused with the bathwater of popular actress Sydney Sweeney.
Only time will tell if Dr. Squatch follows in the woke footsteps of Dove and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/axe-stinks-of-wokeness-fend-off-the-left-with-a-new-scent-from-jeremys-deodorant-instead">Axe</a> and forces its customers to drink the leftist Kool-Aid. 
If you don’t want to worry about the soap brand you use turning into a leftist, just get your soap from <a href="https://www.jeremysrazors.com/collections/hair-body?utm_campaign=Squatchilever&amp;utm_content=20250624&amp;utm_source=editorial">Jeremy’s Razors</a>, the company that will always focus on quality over woke policy. For men looking to wash the woke right down the drain, Jeremy&#8217;s Razors doesn&#8217;t just deliver a superior shave (that you can now <a href="https://www.jeremysrazors.com/products/precision-5-special-offer?selling_plan=4201873621?utm_campaign=Squatchilever&amp;utm_content=20250624&amp;utm_source=editorial">try for just $7.99</a>) — they&#8217;ve got the entire shower covered with products that won&#8217;t lecture customers about their carbon footprint or stance on drag queen story hour. Their <a href="https://www.jeremysrazors.com/products/shampoo?selling_plan=3530457301utm_campaign=Squatchilever&amp;utm_content=20250624&amp;utm_source=editorial">Tea Tree, Argan Oil, &amp; Peppermint Shampoo</a> and <a href="https://www.jeremysrazors.com/products/mens-conditioner?selling_plan=3529801941utm_campaign=Squatchilever&amp;utm_content=20250624&amp;utm_source=editorial">Conditioner</a> clean hair without stripping away conservative values, while their <a href="https://www.jeremysrazors.com/products/active-charcoal-soap?selling_plan=3529638101utm_campaign=Squatchilever&amp;utm_content=20250624&amp;utm_source=editorial">Charcoal Body Wash</a> scrubs away the day&#8217;s grime and leftist nonsense. And for those who prefer the classic bar soap experience, Jeremy&#8217;s Razors offers <a href="https://www.jeremysrazors.com/products/birch-bark-body-soap?selling_plan=4232937685?utm_campaign=Squatchilever&amp;utm_content=20250624&amp;utm_source=editorial">Birch Bark</a> and <a href="https://www.jeremysrazors.com/collections/hair-body/products/oatmeal-citrus-body-soap?selling_plan=4204200149?utm_campaign=Squatchilever&amp;utm_content=20250624&amp;utm_source=editorial">Oatmeal &amp; Citrus exfoliating bars</a> — real soap for real men who don&#8217;t need a side of social justice with their suds. Because when other brands are busy virtue signaling, Jeremy&#8217;s Razors stays busy making products that actually work.
Jeremy&#8217;s Razors shares common ownership with The Daily Wire.

Soap

Popular Soap Brand Gets Sudsy With Woke Giant

Abortion

Jeremy's Razors

LGBT

Ever since the unconscionable horror of October 7 and the brutal war that followed, there’s been a disturbing uptick in corporate activists competing to have the worst possible takes on the conflict — and getting big business to share those takes. This activism is aimed not at establishing a serious way for America’s largest tech &amp; defense companies to view the war against Hamas, but for foisting activist (i.e. non-fiduciary) objectives on the way they conduct their business involving it.
This is nothing new — last year saw a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/since-october-7-anti-israel-activism-has-failed-where-it-matters-most" target="_blank" rel="noopener">surge</a> in anti-Israel activism at numerous shareholder meetings, albeit not activism that resonated with the shareholder audience (in fact, its influence is notably decreasing). Why, then, does this activism persist? This Tuesday, we got a rare sneak peak at the real reason.
Intel is one of the largest private businesses operating in Israel. The company has been in the country since 1974 and is maybe the most crucial company in the Israeli high-tech sector, with other major corporate actors like Nvidia &amp; Apple also maintaining major presences in the region. And yet, despite this 50+ year business relationship that’s not only created tremendous wealth for Israel but generated massive return for Intel shareholders across the globe, corporate activists aren’t happy. Again, nothing new. But at Intel’s <a href="https://central.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/vsm/web?pvskey=INTEL25" target="_blank" rel="noopener">annual meeting</a> on Tuesday, the company fielded a proposal urging the company not merely for risk analysis, but to divest from the country entirely.
Dubbed an “ethical impact assessment,” the <a href="https://d1io3yog0oux5.cloudfront.net/_1d2493931f76b3eb3a02f6d948d9f540/intel/files/documents/flipbook/Intel_Proxy_2025_Files/90/index.html#zoom=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shareholder proposal</a> pushed Intel to consider the “moral &amp; legal implications” of continuing to do business with Israel — many anti-Israel proposals, from <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1526520/000119312524129373/d725214dars.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">TripAdvisor</a> to <a href="https://investors.rtx.com/static-files/f5957454-3174-4285-bf5f-06462044467d" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Raytheon</a>, couch the pressure to divest in innocuous, noble-sounding sentiments involving ethics and human rights (or borrow activist terms like ‘apartheid.’)
Activists at Intel argued that the company should completely “reassess [its] business relationship with Israel,” alleging that the human costs of war against Hamas are grounds for Intel to uproot its ties to a country it’s invested in for more than half a century. And then came the <a href="https://central.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/vsm/web?pvskey=INTEL25" target="_blank" rel="noopener">boom</a>: “We risk exclusion from important ESG indices that screen for human rights compliance in conflict zones.”
There’s no analysis that could make it plainer than that. The real case for why Israel’s most consistent business partners should divest, at its heart, boiled down to ESG ratings. That’s the case: this long standing relationship, that both provides shareholder return and protects innocent civilian life in a just war against one of the world’s most brutal terrorist organizations, has to go so that Intel’s ESG score doesn’t suffer.
<div id="attachment_918149" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-918149" class="size-large wp-image-918149" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-2213569192-864x576.jpg" alt="A display of missiles and drones at the Lockheed Martin Corp. booth at the DEFEA international defense exhibition in Athens, Greece, on Wednesday, May 7, 2025. The Defence Exhibition Athens takes place between May 6 to May 8. Photographer: Nick Paleologos/Bloomberg via Getty Images" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-2213569192-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-2213569192-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-2213569192-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-2213569192.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />A display of missiles and drones at the Lockheed Martin Corp. booth at the DEFEA international defense exhibition in Athens, Greece, on Wednesday, May 7, 2025. Nick Paleologos/Bloomberg via Getty Images</div>
The implicit premise here is, of course, that Israel’s actions to subdue Hamas and defend itself against a fighting force that expressly seeks its annihilation are incompatible with ESG dogma. And it’s not just Intel — today, Lockheed Martin shareholders will vote for the second year in a row on a <a href="https://www.lockheedmartin.com/content/dam/lockheed-martin/eo/documents/annual-reports/2025-proxy-statement.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shareholder proposal</a> pushing the company to stop its similarly long standing relationship with Israel, arguing that Lockheed selling fighter jets renders it complicit in war crimes.
These activist narratives, while arguably nobly intentioned, make the perfect (i.e. a world where war apparently doesn’t involve business decisions and difficult questions) the enemy of the good (i.e. the real world). War has never been free of moral questions — and the philosophical questions involved in companies that operate in war-adjacent industries are real and <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1996368/000109690625000722/bowy_px14a6g.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">worth discussing</a>. But ESG-aligned activists are making it abundantly clear that their answers don’t pass muster.
Pushing a tech company like Intel to divest from an entire nation based on nothing more than chronically vague statements about human rights and a handful of Amnesty International articles opining about ‘apartheid’ (yes, that’s what activists put forward at the meeting Tuesday) isn’t a serious business argument. And pushing a weapons company like Lockheed Martin to stop selling weapons to a longtime business partner engaged in a just war, fighting terrorists that hide among innocent civilian populations, based on nothing more than vague language about “misalignment” with human rights policies, isn’t a serious business argument either.
Too often, ESG-aligned arguments boil down to profoundly unwise ideas wrapped in nice-sounding turns of phrase. Pressuring energy companies into wildly non-fiduciary <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemmagreen/2024/08/29/why-big-corporations-are-quietly-abandoning-their-climate-commitments/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">net-zero commitments</a> is portrayed as being “climate conscious.” <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-radical-intolerance-behind-woke-corporate-activism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pressuring</a> companies into providing puberty blockers for employees’ children is portrayed as “healthcare,” “corporate equality,” and “inclusion.” And now, pressuring companies to divest from Israel, not for demonstrated business but activist narratives that can’t acknowledge the existence of just war, is being portrayed as “responsibly reduc[ing] risk.”
Shareholders are increasingly rejecting these arguments — given their implicit premises, perhaps that’s not surprising. But it’s as good a moment as any to remember that nice sounding business words don’t mean anything without real moral arguments behind them. And if keeping your ESG score means disarming Israeli civilians being targeted by Hamas, that says more about ESG than it does about anything else.
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Isaac Willour is an award-winning journalist focusing on race, culture, and American conservatism, as well as a corporate relations analyst at Bowyer Research. His work has been featured at outlets including USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times Opinion, C-SPAN, and The Daily Wire. He is a member of the Young Voices contributor program and can be found on X <a href="https://twitter.com/IsaacWillour" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@IsaacWillour</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Intel Headquarters Ahead Of Earnings Figures

How ESG Scores Became The New Weapon In The War On Israel

Boycott Divest Sanction

Business

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Israel

shareholders

The following is an excerpt from the new book &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Last-Call-Bud-Light-Americas/dp/1668070901" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Last Call For Bud Light:</a> The Fall and Future of America’s Favorite Beer,” by Anson Frericks (Threshold Editions/Simon &amp; Schuster).
* * *
The wait for the seven-floor elevator ride was taking longer than usual. Anheuser-Busch had recently moved its sales and marketing team from St. Louis to New York City, and more and more people were crammed into the glitzy new office. One of the elevators was broken, and a mob was waiting in the lobby. I decided to take the stairs.
I was on my way to meet Brendan Whitworth, the North American CEO of Anheuser-Busch. The meeting was critical. We had an opportunity for a partnership that could breathe new life into a company that had entered something of a midlife crisis. I’d crunched the numbers. The capital outlay would be negligible, but the profits could be immense. Anheuser-Busch, where I was President of U.S. Sales &amp; Distribution, could make millions.
As I rounded the corner from the stairwell to Brendan’s desk, the office décor suddenly struck me with new meaning. A turn-of-the-century advertisement hawking Anheuser-Busch’s 10-cent Faust beers hung on an iron-textured wall. The rare visual indulgence among what was otherwise an efficient, modern, glass-walled space. Nearby, an oil painting of a bottle of Budweiser rested in an oversized gilded frame, just barely missing the exposed pipes in the ceiling above. It was the perfect juxtaposition of the old and new. The vintage and modern. Even the lighting was marked by contrast. Naked industrial Edison bulbs hung from the ceiling aside sculptures made from dangling Bud Light bottles that looked like they might have been enjoyed at a backyard barbecue the weekend before. The ways of the old guard and the new.
The company had gone through many big transitions. From generations of ownership by the famed Busch family to the takeover by the unstoppable global beer conglomerate InBev. From opulence and Clydesdales to efficiency and zero-based budgeting. From Saint Louis to New York. Somehow, all of it was captured on my way to Brendan’s desk. This could be a turning point, too: Anheuser-Busch could go from a storied brewery whose brands were getting a little flat to something modern, something of-the-moment, something more.
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Last-Call-Bud-Light-Americas/dp/1668070901"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-874813 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/last-call-for-bud-light-9781668070901_hr-384x576.jpg" alt="" width="384" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/last-call-for-bud-light-9781668070901_hr-384x576.jpg 384w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/last-call-for-bud-light-9781668070901_hr-200x300.jpg 200w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/last-call-for-bud-light-9781668070901_hr-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/last-call-for-bud-light-9781668070901_hr-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/last-call-for-bud-light-9781668070901_hr-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/last-call-for-bud-light-9781668070901_hr-1360x2040.jpg 1360w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/last-call-for-bud-light-9781668070901_hr.jpg 1400w" sizes=" (max-width: 384px) 100vw, 384px" /></a>
The partnership wasn’t without its risks, of course. The proposed partner was controversial—polarizing even—in some quarters. Some of our customers might be turned off. There might even be boycotts, though I thought the risk was extremely low.
But the upside was huge. It was an expansion opportunity, a chance to introduce ourselves to a new community. To make an impact, in a way that aligned with our mission to create a future with more cheers. We could start out small, see how it went, and hopefully grow our relationship over time. Our partner’s existing fans would grow to become our fans, and vice versa. A partnership to expand our audience, to appeal to a younger, more contemporary crowd.
I made my pitch. The CEO wasn’t convinced. Neither was Legal.
“Denied,” Anheuser-Busch’s Legal &amp; External Affairs Chief, Cesar Vargas, decried. “The reputational risks are simply too high.” Brendan didn’t push back. The partnership was killed on the spot.
You might think I’m describing a conversation in which Bud Light decided not to pursue its ill-fated marketing partnership with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney. But I’m not. I’m describing a very real conversation about a different partnership: a proposed distribution partnership with Black Rifle Coffee Company in 2022.
If you haven’t heard, Black Rifle Coffee’s mission is to serve coffee and culture to people who love America. For many customers, it’s the American heartland alternative to Starbucks. Its founder, a former U.S. Army Green Beret, was fed up with the way that Starbucks seemingly caters to the coastal, latte-loving elites. How it pledges to hire refugees over American citizens and promotes progressive politics. Black Rifle would be different. It would be pro-veteran, pro–first responder, pro-America. Its name is a reference to the black training rifle issued to troops at boot camp. It hires veterans and military spouses. It hosts archery tournaments for disabled vets. For a time, the founder let one of his down-on-his-luck former military colleagues crash in a trailer on the office grounds. It is a brand for someone who wants a drink that respects freedom and the people who fight for it, that doesn’t hold rural and blue-collar workers in contempt.
The company’s coffee, by the way, is also quite good.
The combination of strong product and targeted marketing was proving explosive. In 2019, Black Rifle sold $82 million worth of coffee. By year end 2021, that figure had ballooned to $233 million. The company had opened a handful of brick-and-mortar coffee shops where baristas slung handcrafted drinks with colorful names like a “camo latte” with Irish cream and mint and what I presume must be a highly caffeinated beverage called only “jet fuel.” But the real growth potential was in selling ready-to-drink cans and bagged coffee through retail channels. In certain markets, Black Rifle was already on the shelves at Walmart, Publix, 7-Eleven, Sam’s Club, and more. But it wanted to expand.
That’s where Anheuser-Busch could come in. Since the end of Prohibition, Anheuser-Busch has invested hundreds of millions of dollars building out a world-class distribution network. Hundreds of wholesalers already managed routes to deliver Budweiser, Bud Light, Busch, Michelob Ultra, Stella Artois, and other Anheuser-Busch brands to these very same grocers, convenience stores, and retail outlets. They also distributed non–Anheuser-Busch brands like energy drinks, waters, and teas.
It would be a match made in heaven: Anheuser-Busch could distribute Black Rifle Coffee’s coffee cans on the same trucks that carried Bud Light. Black Rifle Coffee wouldn’t have to set up its own logistics chain, and Anheuser-Busch could grow its revenue.
But in January 2022, Anheuser-Busch’s top brass didn’t see it that way. Black Rifle Coffee may have been beloved by veterans and the Fox News crowd, but what would the New York City illuminati think of Brendan when news of the partnership spread at cocktail hours and dinner parties? Of course, they didn’t frame it that way. Instead, they invoked the mantra of “reputational risk” as though Anheuser-Busch’s customers would suddenly revolt if they knew that the truck that carried their beer to the store had also carried Black Rifle Coffee. &#8230;
At that moment, I knew that the company where I had spent eleven years had changed. And not for the better. Anheuser-Busch’s executives weren’t evaluating a partnership that could reach new customers and increase shareholder value, they were concerned because Black Rifle Coffee didn’t jive with their personal values and those held by their progressive stakeholders. They had lost touch with Anheuser-Busch’s brand. With its mission. With its consumers. And that’s what set the company up for a much bigger, much more public failure nearly a year later.
* * *
Excerpted from &#8220;<a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Last-Call-for-Bud-Light/Anson-Frericks/9781668070901" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LAST CALL FOR BUD LIGHT</a>,&#8221; by Anson Frericks, published by Threshold Editions, a division of Simon &amp; Schuster. Copyright © 2025 by Anson Frericks.
Anson Frericks is the founder of Athletic Capital and the cofounder, with Vivek Ramaswamy, of Strive Asset Management. Prior to founding Strive, he led finance, sales, and marketing operations as president of Anheuser-Busch Sales &amp; Distribution Company. Anson is a frequent guest on Fox Business, CNBC, Fox &amp; Friends, Jesse Watters Primetime, and NewsNation, and his op-eds have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Fox News, and more. He lives with his family in Cincinnati and received his BA from Yale and his MBA from Harvard.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Los Angeles Dodgers v Baltimore Orioles

I Worked At Anheuser-Busch When Bud Light Imploded. Here’s What I Learned.

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Costco won’t be gutting its diversity initiatives in response to the latest shareholder pushback. At its annual meeting yesterday, more than 98% of shareholders voted against a recent proposal urging the company to axe its diversity initiatives. Sponsored by the National Center for Public Policy Research, the <a href="https://s201.q4cdn.com/287523651/files/doc_financials/2024/ar/FY24-Proxy-Statement.pdf">proposal</a> asserted that “DEI holds litigation, reputational and financial risks to the Company, and therefore financial risks to shareholders,” and laid out an explanation of Costco’s shifting diversity initiatives, including the company renaming its DEI efforts to “People and Communities.” As of today, Costco’s defense of diversity seems to have dealt a serious blow to the growing skepticism and criticism of DEI within many American companies. Seems.
So what’s to be made of this? Several weeks ago, I <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/what-costcos-doubling-down-on-dei-means-and-doesnt-mean">wrote</a> that “Costco may not be the kind of company that flips overnight on biased corporate policies,” which is undoubtedly the case. Is Costco’s resounding rejection of this proposal an indicator that anti-DEI shareholder groups simply are falling on uncaring ears?
In a recent Axios <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/01/23/costco-dei-shareholders-reject-anti-diversity-proposal#" target="_blank" rel="noopener">piece</a> covering the vote, Trillium Asset Management chief advocacy officer Jonas Kron made the case. “It&#8217;s also a strong indication that all the media reports of the death of DEI and ESG are way overblown,” Kron said. “The investing community clearly understands the importance and value of these ESG and DEI approaches.” Let’s leave aside the whole “death of DEI” business, that’s been covered <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-year-the-dei-tide-turned" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in depth before</a>, how no serious corporate engagement figure thinks diversity programs are actually dead. However, what about Kron’s opinions on the “investing community?” This is clever wording, intentionally or otherwise, from Kron. Who exactly are the “investing community” that generated such a strong pushback to Costco’s DEI-skeptical shareholders?
To explain how shareholder proposals work, we’re going to have to get a bit technical. Perspective time: you’re a Costco shareholder and as such receive a proxy statement from the company ahead of its annual meeting, containing all the items to be voted on, including this anti-DEI proposal. But the reality? Most people don’t vote directly on shareholder proposals. That job gets outsourced to what’s called a “proxy adviser,” prominent <a href="https://www.diligent.com/resources/blog/Proxy-advisory-firms" target="_blank" rel="noopener">examples</a> of which include Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis &amp; Co. Such proxy advisory firms are the ones that make recommendations regarding the best way to vote on many shareholder proposals, including ones that pertain to ESG &amp; DEI initiatives. Very few alternatives exist for ESG and DEI skeptical shareholders — the firm I work for, Bowyer Research, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/proxy-adviser-iss-expands-offerings-esg-skeptic-clients-2024-03-04/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">currently offers</a> the only such set of ESG skeptical guidelines offered through ISS.
The point of this explanation? Most Costco shareholders didn’t directly vote their shares on the anti-DEI proposal on the company’s ballot yesterday. Proxy advisory services are notably unfriendly to proposals calling for corporate depoliticization — and their recommendations determine the votes of vast swaths of corporate shareholders. To be clear, many pro-ESG resolutions are also not looked fondly upon by proxy advisers.
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The pro-DEI crowd, as evidenced by perspectives like Kron’s, would like you to think that the Costco narrative is one of shareholders directly voting en masse to keep their diversity initiatives. But, as with many things, the reality is more complicated. Most of the “against” votes on this proposal were determined by the will of a proxy adviser. The bias of proxy advisers is another obstacle that ESG/DEI-skeptical corporate engagement groups have to overcome — and that work is ongoing. We’re in this for the long game, and setbacks are no longer a deterrent.
Costco clearly isn’t flipping overnight on DEI, but that doesn’t mean they’re immune from pressure — and it definitely doesn’t mean the pressure’s going anywhere.
* * *
Isaac Willour is an award-winning journalist focusing on race, culture, and American conservatism, as well as a corporate relations analyst at Bowyer Research. His work has been featured at outlets including USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times Opinion, C-SPAN, and The Daily Wire. He is a member of the Young Voices contributor program and can be found on X <a href="https://twitter.com/IsaacWillour" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@IsaacWillour</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Costco Wholesale store exterior, Connecticut

Costco Votes To Keep DEI. What Now?

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