As we pass the halfway point of the 2020s, it’s safe to say we’ve all had front row seats to what many people have described as the vibe shift. You don’t really have to pay attention to business to understand that something is changing in corporate America. You don’t have to be looking at stocks every day to realize that the balance of power is shifting away from the heights of wokeness we saw at the beginning of the 2020s. President Trump’s latest executive <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/08/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-guarantees-fair-banking-for-all-americans/">order</a>, prohibiting politicized debanking, is creating massive positive waves for conservatives concerned about losing access to their finances — and investors who don’t want the banks they invest in playing politics. This comes on the heels of other executive orders targeted at biased AI <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/07/preventing-woke-ai-in-the-federal-government/">programs</a> and divisive, discriminatory <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-and-wasteful-government-dei-programs-and-preferencing/">DEI policies</a>.
These big steps are the results of top-down exercises in executive power. And a frequent criticism I hear, as someone whose job it is to pay attention to business, is that Trump’s executive orders will just create a facade of non-wokeness, under which companies will resume their previous biased policies. As it happens, answering that criticism is a major part of my work in the world of corporate engagement. Because the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-year-the-dei-tide-turned?author=Isaac+Willour&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=10&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=The+Year+The+DEI+Tide+Turned">pushback</a> against ESG, DEI, &amp; corporate wokeness isn’t just coming from the White House. It’s coming from ordinary investors all across this country who want the businesses they invest in focusing on… well, business.
Let’s take debanking as an example. Months before Trump’s debanking executive order came down, banks like <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/major-win-jpmorgan-chase-ends-political-debanking?author=Isaac+Willour&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=3&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Major+Win%3A+JPMorgan+Chase+Ends+Political+Debanking">JPMorgan Chase</a> &amp; <a href="https://x.com/IsaacWillour/status/1929918865842012351">Citigroup</a> adopted explicit guarantees: no more debanking based on clients’ political beliefs or affiliations. These banks weren’t just anticipating the regulatory and political shift coming from Washington — they were hearing from shareholders. Why? Because when businesses play politics, they don’t just incur the wrath of Republican politicians. These gambles with brand value and deviations from the core business model hurt ordinary Americans, who rightly expect Citigroup to create value for their kids’ college fund instead of opining on gun control through their lending policies.
When JPMorgan Chase debanked Ambassador Sam Brownback, investors took notice. And the investors I work with aren’t the type to sit back and take it. Shareholders like <a href="https://www.wsj.com/finance/my-bid-to-make-jpmorgan-less-woke-progressive-discrimination-conservatives-christians-shareholders-sec-banking-finances-583c7999?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=ASWzDAhg8WubEGKB7cvLlardDDcKkGeJqpUicqcbM1xoLBHMGeBHqpP1w-ZC4shMtQk%3D&amp;gaa_ts=68957d1d&amp;gaa_sig=hpzyOTrRxsQ-AO0cLmG4VpK0q2-FpzuLTXkXA0T73nZM0Iu73898-9shhfsDz68MpAEbFs9tDXU_DvlMbfl-Fw%3D%3D">David Bahnsen</a> and other ordinary <a href="https://investor.bankofamerica.com/regulatory-and-other-filings/all-sec-filings/content/0001193125-24-064529/d529855ddef14a1.pdf">investors</a> were attending annual meetings and putting pressure on these companies from the inside for years, not to be right-wing or give special privileges to conservatives, but to play it neutral: serve everyone, because everyone needs banks. And because banks have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders, there have been real arguments occurring between investors and company reps for years on the debanking issue. Add to this pressure from red state fiduciaries cutting ties with activist banks (turns out, pro-energy states don’t take kindly to banks demonizing the energy industry), and the supercharging effect of an executive order, and you start to see how corporate America is slowly shifting back towards normalcy. And that’s just the debanking issue.
If you had to sum up why the backlash to corporate wokeness is working in one sentence, try this one: the pro-sanity business ecosystem has become too big to ignore, and too committed to fail. Think about it as a coalition. One part is ordinary investors and institutions who invest for return — these aren’t professional activists, a dynamic that companies are only recently having to get used to. Another part is financial professionals, another part are legal advocates like Alliance Defending Freedom, working to make sure companies can’t just ignore their own shareholders (because they try — often). Another part is friendly journalists and X personalities like Robby Starbuck, putting millions of eyes on this issue. Another part is the countless advocacy groups providing the research &amp; data that fuel our ability to talk to these companies, such as Consumers’ Research and the 1792 Exchange. Effective corporate engagement happens when all these forces align on a single aim: getting companies out of politics &amp; back to business. 
And we’re seeing real results on a whole host of issues. Beyond the debanking issue, we’re seeing companies <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jan/08/us-banks-quit-net-zero-alliance-before-trump-inauguration">ditch</a> anti-energy commitments in droves (turns out, net zero becomes a fantasy the minute you look at the energy demands of the real world.) We’re seeing companies commit to treating their religious employees with the same respect &amp; privileges afforded to non-religious ones, including through workplace affinity groups and inclusion in charity matching programs. We’re seeing companies like <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/media/pepsico-puts-out-viewpoint-neutral-media-buying-content-policy-website">PepsiCo</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ibm-rolls-back-dei-commits-to-political-neutrality?author=Isaac+Willour&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=2&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=IBM+Rolls+Back+DEI%2C+Commits+To+Political+Neutrality">IBM</a> commit to not using their ad policies to discriminate against conservative news outlets like the Daily Wire. And we have good reason to believe that, as corporate engagement increases, more wins are coming.
So, what about that façade of nonwokeness? Aren’t companies just going to lie? As it happens, vigilance from actual investors is a fantastic way to safeguard against that. People generally have the biggest incentive to do something when it hurts to not do it. So, who has the biggest incentive to make sure businesses aren’t playing politics? The people who own the business: shareholders. The investors we represent have a clear incentive to be in the details — because the problem of corporate wokeness isn’t just a PR or branding issue. It’s an issue that affects the bottom line Americans depend on.
The vibe shift we’re seeing goes far beyond Washington, even though Washington matters. What’s happening in America, in real time, is conservative investors and institutions waking up and realizing that they’ve been leaving their financial influence on the table. And we truly have no blueprint for how much winning is possible when that influence is brought to bear. So, from Washington, to the halls of conservative institutions, to the ordinary mom-and-pop investors sitting at their kitchen table in West Texas — here’s to winning. The best is yet to come.
* * *
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.

Flag and Wall street sign

Why The Pro-Sanity Coalition Is Winning Again In Corporate America

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Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

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Billionaire investor Bill Ackman vowed on Wednesday to provide &#8220;hundreds of millions of dollars&#8221; to back any viable challenger against Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani in New York City&#8217;s mayoral race.
Mamdani <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/andrew-cuomo-falls-to-radical-socialist-zohran-mamdani-in-nyc-mayoral-primary?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Tim+Rice&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=Andrew+Cuomo+Falls+To+Radical+Socialist+Zohran+Mamdani+In+NYC+Mayoral+Primary">defeated</a> former Governor Andrew Cuomo in New York City&#8217;s Democratic primary on Tuesday and will compete against incumbent Mayor Eric Adams (running as an independent this cycle) and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa in the November general election.
Ackman, founder and chief executive of hedge fund manager Pershing Square Capital, <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/politics/billionaire-bill-ackman-promises-millions-to-anyone-willing-to-challenge-mamdani-for-nyc-mayor/">wrote</a> a lengthy post on X to express his alarm at Mamdani’s victory.
&#8220;I awoke this morning gravely concerned about New York City,&#8221; Ackman wrote. &#8220;I thought &#8216;What has NYC become that an avowed socialist who has supported defunding the police, whose solution to lowering food prices is city-owned supermarkets, who doesn&#8217;t understand that freezing rents will only make apartments scarcer and more expensive in the long run.'&#8221;
The billionaire investor compared a potential Mamdani-led New York to &#8220;another failed major city run by Democrats alongside Seattle, Chicago, LA, and SF,&#8221; quoting Senator John Fetterman&#8217;s (D-PA) assessment that Mamdani&#8217;s victory represented &#8220;Christmas in July for the GOP.&#8221;
&#8220;A mayor who disrespects the NYPD and has called for their defunding will get less effective policing, and Bratton&#8217;s &#8216;broken window theory&#8217; will operate in reverse,&#8221; Ackman wrote, warning that New York City would become &#8220;much more dangerous and economically unviable&#8221; under Mamdani&#8217;s administration.
Ackman assured potential candidates that funding would be instantly available, stating, &#8220;there are hundreds of million of dollars of capital available to back a competitor to Mamdani that can be put together overnight,&#8221; and adding that he is &#8220;in the text strings and the WhatsApp groups&#8221; organizing the effort.
The financier noted that any challenger would likely need to run as a write-in candidate, but suggested this could become &#8220;an important call to action that brings people in throngs to the polls&#8221; rather than a disadvantage.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
I awoke this morning gravely concerned about New York City. I thought “What has NYC become that an avowed socialist who has supported defunding the police, whose solution to lowering food prices is city-owned supermarkets, who doesn’t understand that freezing rents will only…
— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) <a href="https://twitter.com/BillAckman/status/1938094628034506984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 26, 2025</a></blockquote>
New York City, with a gross metropolitan <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/NGMP35620">product</a> of $2.3 trillion and a population exceeding 8 million residents, is America&#8217;s financial nerve center. Many on Wall Street reacted with dread following Mamdani’s primary win, and <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/06/23/us-news/nyc-biz-leaders-left-shaking-over-prospect-of-zohran-mamdani-mayoral-win-it-would-be-disastrous/">predicted</a> a mass exodus from the city if he is elected in November.
Mamdani, a state assemblyman representing parts of Queens, has championed policies that alarm fiscal conservatives and moderate Democrats alike. His <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/here-are-the-top-five-craziest-policy-proposals-from-nyc-mayor-candidates?author=Catherine+Maxwell&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Here+Are+The+Top+Five+Craziest+Policy+Proposals+From+NYC+Mayor+Candidates">platform</a> includes advocating for city-owned supermarkets, rent freezing measures, and significant reallocations of police funding to social services.
Ackman expressed particular concern about Mamdani&#8217;s stance on Israel, noting that &#8220;a mayor who condones hate speech will incentivize more hate speech and violence,&#8221; adding that &#8220;words matter, and yes, they can inspire people to kill as we have recently tragically seen in our country and around the world.&#8221;
Mamdani has stated that he doesn’t believe Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state, refused to condemn calls to “globalize the intifada,” and recorded a <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/06/21/us-news/socialist-nyc-mayoral-candidate-zohran-mamdani-once-rapped-about-his-love-for-hamas-teror-funding-group-holy-land-five/">rap song</a> expressing “love” to convicted Hamas financiers. His October 7 statement notably focused on “ending the occupation” with little mention of Hamas’ massacre of Israeli civilians.
Ackman suggested that former Mayor Michael Bloomberg might play a significant role in any challenge to Mamdani, stating that he was &#8220;sure that Mike Bloomberg will share his how-to-win-the-mayoralty IP and deliver his entire election apparatus and system to the aspiring candidate.&#8221;
The investor called on his followers to &#8220;crowdsource&#8221; potential candidate names and conduct polling to identify the most viable challenger.

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Billionaire Pledges To Bankroll Any NYC Mayoral Candidate Who Can Beat Zohran Mamdani

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NEW YORK (Reuters) — Wall Street advanced on Tuesday as investors welcomed a fragile truce with Israel and Iran while parsing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell&#8217;s congressional <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jerome-powell-suggests-delaying-rate-cuts-beyond-july-meeting-while-fed-studies-tariff-impact">testimony</a> for clues regarding the U.S. central bank&#8217;s path forward.
All three major U.S. stock indexes were on track for their second straight session of solid gains following U.S. missile strikes on Iran&#8217;s uranium enrichment assets.
The benchmark S&amp;P 500 was less than 1% below its all-time closing high reached on February 19.
Late Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire agreement, but then on Tuesday, the president <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-holds-ceasefire-after-israel-refrains-from-major-retaliation-for-irans-strike-on-civilians">stepped in</a> to urge Israel to stand down on a retaliatory attack on Iran after Iran killed at least four people in an attack in southern Israel targeting civilians just before the ceasefire went into effect.
Still, investors viewed the ceasefire as a sign of de-escalating tensions.
&#8220;The market has learned very precisely over the last generation that any time there’s a geopolitical flare-up in the Middle East that affects U.S. financial markets, those effects will be short-lived,&#8221; said Scott Ladner, chief investment officer at Horizon in Charlotte, North Carolina.
&#8220;The ceasefire is just cementing that view,&#8221; Ladner added.
Crude prices slid on waning supply concerns related to the conflict, dragging energy shares lower.
Powell, speaking before the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, reiterated his view that rate cuts can wait until the economic effects of tariff increases are better known, adding &#8220;we are well positioned to wait to learn more about the likely course of the economy before considering any adjustments to our policy stance.&#8221;
Financial markets have been pricing in a more than 20% likelihood that the Fed will lower its key interest rate at the conclusion of its upcoming July policy meeting, and a near 70% probability that its first rate cut will land in September.
&#8220;We think September&#8217;s very likely and we think while July is not a zero probability event, it&#8217;s definitely a long shot,&#8221; Ladner said.
On the economic front, Consumer Confidence deteriorated this month, with pessimism toward the jobs market falling to its lowest level since March 2021.
The Commerce Department is expected to release its final take on first-quarter GDP on Thursday, and on Friday its closely watched Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) report will shed light on inflation, consumer spending and income growth.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 513.96 points, or 1.21%, to 43,095.74, the S&amp;P 500 gained 71.64 points, or 1.19%, to 6,096.94, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 305.28 points, or 1.56%, to 19,936.25.
Among the 11 major sectors of the S&amp;P 500, Tech shares led the gainers, while energy stocks were the sole decliners.
Among megacap stocks, Tesla shares shed 2.0%.
Airline stocks gained altitude amid cooling Middle East tensions. The S&amp;P 1500 Airlines index advanced 2.3%.
But defense stocks lost ground, with Lockheed Martin and RTX Corp both off about 2.9%.
Shares of crypto companies rose after bitcoin hit a one-week high. Coinbase Global and Strategy advanced 11.7% and 3.8% respectively.
Broadcom touched a record high, after HSBC raised the semiconductor manufacturer to &#8220;buy&#8221; from &#8220;hold&#8221;. The stock was last up 3.4%.
Package delivery firm FedEx is expected to report quarterly results after the closing bell.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 3.38-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 195 new highs and 49 new lows on the NYSE.
On the Nasdaq, 3,430 stocks rose and 1,007 fell as advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 3.41-to-1 ratio.
The S&amp;P 500 posted 18 new 52-week highs and no new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 109 new highs and 49 new lows.
(Reporting by Stephen Culp; Additional reporting by Kanchana Chakravarty in Bengaluru; Editing by David Gregorio)

Traders work on the floor of the NYSE in New York

Wall Street Rallies, S&P 500 Nears Record High As Middle East Tensions Cool

Donald Trump

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Retail giant Target revealed on Tuesday that customer boycotts damaged its sales in the first quarter, following the company&#8217;s January decision to scale back several diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
Sales fell 2.8% from last year to $23.85 billion, below the $24.23 billion Wall Street expected, with Target now expecting a low-single digit decline in annual sales for 2025, a significant downgrade from its March projection of a 1% increase.
According to the company’s earnings <a href="https://corporate.target.com/press/release/2025/05/target-corporation-reports-first-quarter-earnings#:~:text=For%20fiscal%202025%2C%20the%20Company,be%20approximately%20%247.00%20to%20%249.00.">report</a>, “Comparable sales decreased 3.8 percent in the first quarter, reflecting a comparable store sales decline of 5.7 percent and comparable digital sales growth of 4.7 percent.”
Target, previously a staunch supporter of leftist causes, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/target-rolls-back-dei-joining-other-major-companies-like-walmart-meta">announced</a> in January it would phase out several DEI initiatives after criticism from conservative activists and the White House.
Despite the reversal, the company continues to receive backlash from both the Right and the Left, with many conservatives arguing that the retailer’s retreat from DEI policies has come too late.
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In February, Target was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/target-faces-shareholder-lawsuit-over-pride-campaign-dei-initiative-fallout">hit</a> with a class action lawsuit from shareholders who accused the retailer of misleading them about the risks posed by its DEI initiative, which the plaintiffs allege contributed to Target&#8217;s stock having plummeted more than 37% over the past year.
Rev. Jamal Bryant, who <a href="https://apnews.com/article/40-day-target-boycott-fast-dei-d1d40f79f5f1b3afb2dfe8561e7729a0">led</a> a nationwide 40-day boycott of Target stores after the company ended DEI initiatives in “a spiritual act of resistance,” called for a continuation of that effort.
“We faced several additional headwinds this quarter, including five consecutive months of declining consumer confidence, uncertainty regarding the impact of potential tariffs, and the reaction to the updates we shared on [DEI] in January,” Target CEO Brian Cornell <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/21/business/target-earnings-dei-tariffs">said</a> on an earnings call.
“I want to be clear that we’re not satisfied with these results,” Cornell added. “We’ve got to drive traffic back into our stores and visits to our site.”
The company faces additional challenges from potential tariffs on Chinese imports. While President Donald Trump&#8217;s threatened 145% tariffs were reduced to 30% in a May 12 deal, with some higher tariffs paused for 90 days, Target remains <a href="https://apnews.com/article/target-first-quarter-earnings-tariffs-ed5765bac92257a0bab3815ece31f5c1">vulnerable</a> due to its higher reliance on discretionary items compared to competitors like Walmart, according to the AP.
&#8220;We look at competition,&#8221; Cornell explained regarding potential price hikes. &#8220;We make adjustments literally each and every week, so we&#8217;re constantly adjusting pricing. Some are going up. Some will be reduced.&#8221;
The retailer operates nearly 2,000 stores nationwide with more than 400,000 employees, making its financial performance a significant indicator for the broader retail sector.
Out of 35 merchandise categories Target tracks, the company is currently gaining or maintaining market share in only 15, the AP reported.

Target’s DEI Drama Costs Big As Boycotts Impact Sales

Retail

It’s not an exaggeration to say that conservative shareholder engagement is changing the corporate game. For years, Left-wing activists controlled the agendas at our largest companies, using not only their leverage as stockholders but their perpetual devotion to activism to get in the ear of America’s boards and directors. The result? Leftward drift in virtually every major company. But now conservative shareholders, from ordinary investors to major conservative nonprofits, are stepping into the game — and their engagements are bearing major fruit. The latest proof? IBM.
IBM’s track record on corporate bias and activism is notorious. The company was a member of the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), a group created by the World Federation of Advertisers that worked to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-daily-wire-addresses-the-ad-industry-following-the-fall-of-garm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">keep ad revenue away</a> from conservative news sites like the Daily Wire to free speech-centric platforms like X. And that’s before all the DEI concerns surfaced. After IBM CEO Arvind Krishna was caught on a <a href="https://x.com/JamesOKeefeIII/status/1734374423124176944?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1734374423124176944%7Ctwgr%5E42e55266e59ec08d85550be6ab044097866bd072%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdallasexpress.com%2Fbusiness-markets%2Fceo-of-tech-corp-ibm-enshrines-dei-hiring%2F">hot mic</a> discussing how the company uses quotas of ‘underrepresented’ minorities in determining their executive pay — in Krishna’s words, execs have “got to move both [race and gender] forward by a percentage point” in order to get a higher bonus. That means DEI. That means quotas. Following these snafus, the reputational, ethical, and (in the case of the Missouri AG who <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/missouri-attorney-general-sues-tech-giant-ibm-alleging-discrimination-against-whites-asians-men" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sued</a> IBM) legal scrutiny was swift in coming.
IBM’s motto since its early years has been “THINK,” referring to the innovative spirit with which the company solves problems. Yet when it came to political bias, that motto was missing in action — and shareholders took notice. In January, the firm I work for, Bowyer Research, began <a href="https://www.heritage.org/press/heritage-foundation-expands-efforts-hold-corporate-america-accountable-end-its-discriminatory" target="_blank" rel="noopener">work</a> with the Heritage Foundation to hold IBM accountable for the DEI quotas that Krishna described. The argument? Simple — use of non-meritocratic quotas based on race and gender aren’t just bad for reputation, but illegal on their face and bad for business. Shareholders, from major nonprofits to ordinary mom-and-pop investors, shouldn’t have their business returns impacted by IBM’s belief in identity politics.
As the shareholder engagement heated up on the internal front, pressure from <a href="https://lunduke.locals.com/post/5515346/the-ibm-red-hat-leaks-what-weve-learned-so-far" target="_blank" rel="noopener">journalists</a> and <a href="https://x.com/robbystarbuck/status/1910425361034383545" target="_blank" rel="noopener">influencers</a> like Robby Starbuck increased on the external front. That pressure built and built — and the release began earlier this month, when IBM announced the end of many of its DEI initiatives and related goals, including the elimination of its diversity council, the phaseout of its supplier diversity initiatives, and no longer participating in surveys put out by radical corporate <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-radical-intolerance-behind-woke-corporate-activism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">activist groups</a> like the Human Rights Campaign, which pressures companies to cover puberty blocker access for employees’ children in the name of “health care access.”
That would have been news enough — until several days ago, when IBM also <a href="https://www.heritage.org/press/heritage-foundation-secures-commitment-viewpoint-neutrality-ibm-encourages-company" target="_blank" rel="noopener">agreed</a> to include viewpoint neutrality as part of its advertising policy in response to Heritage’s shareholder engagement. That means that biased, activist-driven, political censorship that ad cartels like GARM perpetuate is now explicitly banned under IBM corporate policy. IBM listened to its shareholders, its employees, and its customers — and the result is another company willing to make commitments to political neutrality. This is what happens when authentic shareholder advocacy, championing political neutrality, merges with external pressure to drop corporate bias: change happens, and happens in the form of concrete policy commitments, not just boilerplate PR statements. It’s a praiseworthy step.
But is the scrutiny over? Absolutely not. IBM needs to demonstrate that they’re committed to actually staying the course on being politically-neutral and quota-free. Outstanding questions remain. During our engagement on behalf of Heritage, the company <a href="https://www.sec.gov/files/corpfin/no-action/14a-8/heritageibm3325-14a8.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">notably claimed</a> to the SEC that they couldn’t give a definition of DEI as grounds to ignore shareholder concerns — so how did they go from not knowing what DEI is to getting rid of it? (You can probably guess how.) The company holds its annual meeting of shareholders today, and if they’re savvy will make a point of focusing their messaging on business, not activism.
Achieving the commitment to neutrality at IBM was the result of a myriad of groups, from shareholders like Heritage to <a href="https://adflegal.org/press-release/sec-sides-with-adf-denies-absurd-attempt-from-govt-contractor-ibm-to-hide-from-shareholders-on-dei-proposal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">legal giants</a> like Alliance Defending Freedom to the courageous IBM employees willing to speak out about the bias behind the scenes. And it’s going to take all of those groups to be vigilant now — not paying attention to our boardrooms is what got us into the woke mess in the first place.
This is the next phase of rooting out bias and wokeness from corporate America — watching tirelessly to see whether companies that commit to ditching DEI are actually willing to put their messaging and money where their mouths are. Smart companies will be willing to commit to change. Foolish ones will hope to either avoid scrutiny altogether or reintroduce the same tired DEI policies under the guise of <a href="https://www.shrm.org/executive-network/insights/time-to-add-b-for-belonging-to-workplace-dei-strategy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">phrases</a> like “belonging.” It’s our job, as shareholders, as customers, and as Americans, to keep up the pressure for accountability with the leverage that we’ve been given. And above all, to make the case for what truly makes every company successful: the courage to resist activism and the fortitude to focus on business.
* * *
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.

Traders On The Floor Of The New York Stock Exchange As Fed Chair Powell Holds New Conference

IBM Rolls Back DEI, Commits To Political Neutrality

Diversity

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Opinion

Robby Starbuck

Climate activists vandalized the iconic Wall Street Bull with green graffiti declaring &#8220;Greed = Death,” but quickly scrubbed it clean before police officers arrived at the scene.
Members of the environmental activist group Extinction Rebellion defaced the bronze statue early Monday during an Earth Day demonstration, the New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/04/22/us-news/wall-street-bull-painted-over-by-environmental-activists-who-cleaned-up-when-cops-came/">reported</a>.
The vandals spray-painted their organization&#8217;s symbol alongside the anti-capitalist messaging on the bull while hysterically reciting climate alarmist slogans.
The activists also attempted to create an image of the bull defecating on a cutout of Earth by hanging debris-filled brown stockings near the rear of the statue.
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NOW: &quot;Greed=Death&quot; tagged on the Charging Bull in NYSE by Climate activists with Extinction Rebellion, on the National Earth Day. <a href="https://t.co/qtEoZmD4jd">pic.twitter.com/qtEoZmD4jd</a>
&mdash; Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) <a href="https://twitter.com/ScooterCasterNY/status/1914662322397733103?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 22, 2025</a></blockquote>
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The group took credit for the act on X, <a href="https://x.com/XR_NYC/status/1914703015270879295">writing</a>, “Good morning from the resistance. We came to Wall Street to call out the bullshit. Bullshit told by the 1% who gamble with our futures. Bullshit to bailouts for those who wrecked our economy. #GreedIsDeath #ActNow.”
“We spoke the truth, we called them out — and the city&#8217;s elite laughed. But the joke isn’t so funny now, when it’s their stocks and wealth getting screwed.”
After one cop <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/2025/04/22/earth-day-activists-deface-wall-st-charging-bull-then-clean-it-up/">ordered</a> an activist sitting on the bull&#8217;s neck to dismount, the activists seemed to panic, hastily scrubbing away their graffiti before more police officers even approached the scene, according to the New York Daily News.
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Wall Street Bull painted over by environmental activists — who frantically cleaned it up when cops came <a href="https://t.co/ldkrDngmM4">https://t.co/ldkrDngmM4</a> <a href="https://t.co/rBPiqR3if2">pic.twitter.com/rBPiqR3if2</a>
&mdash; New York Post (@nypost) <a href="https://twitter.com/nypost/status/1914714834785960125?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 22, 2025</a></blockquote>
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As more cops arrived on the scene, they casually watched as the activists finished cleaning their graffiti off the bull, making no immediate arrests.
The 7,100-pound Wall Street Bull, installed in 1989, has long been a symbol of American financial prosperity and a frequent target for anti-capitalist protesters.
The bull has repeatedly been targeted by left-wing protesters, who see the statue as a symbol of corporate “greed” and the evils of capitalism.
In 2019, a Dallas man <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/2019/09/07/wall-streets-iconic-charging-bull-statue-bashed-by-angry-texas-man/">bashed</a> what appeared to be a heavy silver guitar into the statue while screaming “F**k Trump!,” damaging one of its horns before he was arrested by the NYPD.

Earth Day Protestors Vandalize Iconic Wall St Bull Statue

Climate Activists Deface Wall Street Bull — Then Panic And Clean It Before Cops Come

Climate Change

Earth Day

Environmentalism

U.S.

Vandalism

Liberation Day. April 2, 2025. The Trump administration announced reciprocal tariffs on nearly ninety nations across the globe. The stock market tanked, impacted nations retaliated, businesses canceled their guidance to Wall Street, and the mainstream media began to try to talk the nation into a recession.
Many wondered just what Trump was trying to achieve. Now, to be fair, the Trump administration sent mixed messages about the purpose of the tariffs. Some said the tariffs were designed to drive manufacturing investment in the United States, indicating that the tariffs were here to stay. Others claimed that the tariffs were a means to force other nations to drop their tariffs on the United States. While others said that the tariffs were meant to force all nations to drop tariffs on American goods, reduce their trade surplus with the United States, and to cease all non-tariff barriers to free trade. 
The confusion as to the purpose of the tariffs created doubt about the off-ramp and Trump’s end game.
This uncertainty contributed to a significant market selloff, with the <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/markets/2025/04/09/stock-market-trump-tariffs-updates-wednesday/83002347007/">S&amp;P 500</a> shedding over $5.8 trillion in value by April 8.
Then, on April 9, President Trump dropped new tariff rates on <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/09/trump-announces-90-day-tariff-pause-for-at-least-some-countries.html">imports</a> from the majority of the United States’ trading partners to 10% for 90 days, allowing for trade negotiations to take place. Trump also announced that he was raising the tariffs on goods imported from China to 125%, “effective immediately.”
The market’s reaction was swift and <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/08/stock-market-today-live-updates-.html">positive</a>. The S&amp;P rose more than 9.5%, its biggest one-day gain since World War II. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose nearly 7.9%, its biggest percentage gain since March 2020. The Nasdaq Composite rose 12.2%, its largest one-day increase since January 2001. Approximately 30 billion shares traded hands, making it the heaviest volume day on Wall Street in history.
Amid the market surge, one key development received little attention: Trump designated U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to lead the trade negotiations to resolve the tariff issues.
Trump is showing excellent leadership skills with the decision to allow Bessent to lead the negotiations instead of trying to lead them himself. Bessent is level-headed and a serious negotiator. He understands markets and the benefits of free trade. More importantly, it keeps the nuclear option of negotiating with Trump in the administration’s back pocket. Bessent can say, “you had better find a way to get a deal done with me, or you will have to negotiate directly with the president, and he will reinstate the tariffs during the negotiations.”
The tariff war of 2025 is barely a week old, and President Trump is poised to win but he needs to be disciplined enough to take the win.
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Secretary Bessent needs to be able to reach agreements in principle with the nation’s trading partners, extending the tariff freeze with any nation that drops their tariffs on the United States and agrees to negotiate in good faith to reduce other non-tariff trade barriers. These agreements are complex and thousands of pages long. Trump and the administration must be willing to use the carrot with the same vigor as they have used the stick.
The win for Trump and his team will come if Secretary Bessent can announce agreements in principle with a number of trading partners in the next week, Japan, South Korea, and Vietnam, for example. The tariff freeze with these countries must be extended indefinitely, as long as active negotiations are on-going.
This will signal to our trading partners, and more importantly, the market, that the United States is serious about getting deals done. The stock market will rise, interest rates will come down, and, most importantly, consumers will have the confidence to spend, avoiding a recession.
Trump’s book, &#8220;The Art of the Deal&#8221; was written decades ago, but the principles he espoused in the 1980’s still apply today.
* * *
Jim Nelles is a Navy veteran and supply chain consultant based in Chicago. His articles have appeared in the Washington Examiner, Newsweek, Foxnews.com, and the Daily Wire. He has served as a chief procurement officer, chief supply chain officer, and chief operations officer for multiple companies.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-TRUMP-RETURN

Don’t Doubt The Art Of The Deal

Don't Doubt The Art Of The Deal

China

President Trump

Tariffs

Trade War

Speaking to bankers in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that President Donald Trump is focusing his policy &#8220;on Main Street,&#8221; adding that small businesses have been overlooked while &#8220;Wall Street has grown wealthier than ever before.&#8221;
Bessent made the <a href="https://www.c-span.org/program/public-affairs-event/treasury-secretary-bessent-remarks-at-bankers-association-summit/658349" target="_blank" rel="noopener">remarks</a> at the American Bankers Association Summit, discussing Trump&#8217;s economic policy and tariffs as global markets respond to the president&#8217;s tariff rollout. Following Trump&#8217;s &#8220;Liberation Day&#8221; tariffs announcement last Wednesday, U.S. stocks immediately dipped and have yet to recover as anxiety persists on Wall Street.
The treasury secretary began his speech by emphasizing the importance of Main Street over Wall Street, arguing that Trump &#8220;understands that national strength comes from the ground up, not from the top down, and this concept applies to good government just as it does to banking and capital coordination.&#8221;
&#8220;For too long, financial policy has served large financial institutions at the expense of smaller ones. No more,&#8221; Bessent said. &#8220;This administration aims to give all banks the chance to succeed, whether it&#8217;s JP Morgan or your local mortgage and loan.&#8221;
&#8220;For the last four decades, basically since I began my career in Wall Street, Wall Street has grown wealthier than ever before, and it can continue to grow and do well,&#8221; he added. &#8220;But for the next four years, the Trump agenda is focused on Main Street. It&#8217;s Main Street&#8217;s turn to hire workers. It&#8217;s Main Street&#8217;s turn to drive investment. And it&#8217;s Main Street&#8217;s turn to restore the American dream.&#8221;
In a Q&amp;A session following his speech, Bessent addressed Trump&#8217;s tariffs and their effect on the stock market, acknowledging that &#8220;there is a little uncertainty,&#8221; but he added that corporate executives he&#8217;s talked to say &#8220;the economy is very solid.&#8221;
&#8220;We are in pretty good shape,&#8221; Bessent said.
As trade deals remain up in the air and China doubles down on retaliating with tariffs on American goods, Bessent said that he believes the Trump administration &#8220;can probably&#8221; strike deals with its allies around the world, &#8220;and then we can approach China as a group.&#8221;
&#8220;We&#8217;ve been overwhelmed with the response to come to D.C. and negotiate,&#8221; Bessent continued, adding, &#8220;I think we have about 70 negotiations lined up. I&#8217;m not planning on going anywhere for Easter.&#8221;

Scott Bessent

Scott Bessent Says Trump Is Prioritizing Main Street Over Wall Street In Speech To Bankers

On Tuesday, we saw a massive stock market dump. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged almost 900 points.
The stock market has been in a bit of a freefall over the course of the last couple of weeks, and I have been predicting this for a while. 
It turns out that when you mess with the market mechanisms, people don&#8217;t like it. Investors tend to take the money out of the market and wait for things to be a little calmer, a little steadier. If you think of the free markets essentially as an ocean, sometimes it&#8217;s pretty choppy out there. Right now, it&#8217;s choppy.
If this administration is blamed for the choppy waters, that will be quite bad — not just for this administration, but also for everything it represents in the public mind.
Today, Emerson released a new poll <a href="https://emersoncollegepolling.com/national-poll-at-50-days-trumps-honeymoon-fades-as-economy-becomes-key-vulnerability/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">showing</a> President Trump’s handling of the economy underwater by 11 points. His job approval rating remains at 47-45, which is largely due to the widespread and correct perception that he totally changed the game on immigration. We are experiencing the lowest levels of illegal immigration ever recorded in the United States, as far as I&#8217;m aware.
But when it comes to the economy, which is what most people base their vote upon, if President Trump is blamed for an economic downturn, the effects could be disastrous, not just obviously for the Trump administration, but for the many things that are important for the United States, including free markets more generally.
“But worries about a trade war, signs of flagging growth and splinters in the artificial-intelligence trade have taken some of the shine off that optimism,” The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/finance/stocks/us-stocks-underperform-trade-war-9c68599d" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> yesterday. “President Trump over the weekend refused to rule out a recession this year, setting off a fresh wave of declines in U.S. stocks. The S&amp;P 500 fell 2.7%, while tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 4%. Bank stocks slid, along with shares of smaller companies perceived to be sensitive to the economy. Bonds rallied.”
When people are uncertain what to do, they start buying bonds because they feel like they&#8217;re at least going to get paid off at a certain point.
“While the U.S.’s strength is in question, other countries are ramping up efforts to revive their economies,” the Journal continued. “China has unleashed more stimulus to meet its economic growth target. Germany announced a spending splurge on its military and infrastructure.”
If you just borrow to spend, which is what the United States has been doing for a very long time, you end up with an artificially inflated economy. This has happened previously in the United States, but it&#8217;s far more true for Germany and China than for the U.S.
However, there is something else happening, something deeper. And that is a widespread perception that the Trump team is trying to reshape the global order in a way that will not be good for the American or the global economy. It is a widespread perception that is beginning to percolate into the markets.
I’ve been talking to many of the market makers. I&#8217;m having conversations with business people who have hundreds of millions of dollars invested in the markets. And they are all very, very wary of the signals that are being put out.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2155-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
When it comes to today’s economy, signals matter an awful lot. As I have explained before, if you&#8217;re a small business person, what do you want to make sure that you&#8217;re going to invest in your business?
You want a growing economy. You want to make sure the government doesn’t come and take your money or overregulate you; you want to know the conditions of tomorrow are going to be very similar to the conditions of today.
That&#8217;s how you engage in predictive decision-making. It&#8217;s how you decide whether to hire that extra employee. It&#8217;s how you decide whether to invest in more capital equipment. It&#8217;s how you decide whether to expand your holdings or contractor holdings in particular areas.
Predictability matters. Now, President Trump is not a predictable president. He has never been a predictable president. But the one area where he was always quite predictable was economics. President Trump liked tariffs. But what did he like more? He liked results.
What that meant was that during the first administration, when he talked about tariffs a lot, the total amount of tariffs put on the American economy effectually ended up totaling around $30 billion total. It was not a huge amount, and much of it was designed to leverage places like Mexico into signing a new version of the USMCA.
I think one of the reasons people in the markets are particularly perturbed by Trump&#8217;s attacks on Canada is the difference in cause. It&#8217;s one thing to say we&#8217;re going after Mexico to get them to close the border; that&#8217;s a piece of leverage. All right. Fine.
Similarly, it&#8217;s a second thing to say we&#8217;re going to put tariffs on China because China is stealing our intellectual property and building up their military at incredibly rapid rates. Completely agree. Fine.
But Canada. What did Canada do? The very notion that Canada is not a major trading partner with the United States is untrue. Canada is our number one trading partner. Canada has extraordinarily low-average tariff rates with the United States under a deal negotiated during President Trump&#8217;s first term, the USMCA.
Thus, the aim at Canada appears to the global markets to be a move away from America&#8217;s involvement in the world in total.
As I&#8217;ve addressed before, that doesn&#8217;t mean we need to be involved everywhere, either militarily or economically. However, the reality that America is the global hegemon is one of the reasons that the American economy continues to be the behemoth that it is. When you withdraw from what is a de facto financial empire, when you withdraw from providing global security and freedom of the seas, and when you appear to be attempting to draw inward, the rest of the world is less interested in investing in you, in buying your debt, and in funding your giant government expenditures.
The rest of the world is less interested in doing business with you if it&#8217;s harder to do business with you. And this has a detrimental effect on the economy, not just outside the United States, but also inside the United States. It turns out that autarchy — the notion that we should produce and consume everything in the United States — is a romantic idea, but it has ended with impoverishment of the population and generally been followed by expansionism everywhere it has been tried over the course of the last few centuries. That was true in Germany. It was true in China. It was true in Russia. It&#8217;s true virtually everywhere it&#8217;s been tried.
So, if the markets think that&#8217;s what you&#8217;re doing, even if you&#8217;re not, that&#8217;s not going to be good for the markets.
President Trump is saying he is implementing short-term pain for long-term gain. He has <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/03/sunday-shows-the-golden-age-of-america-is-here/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>, “What we&#8217;re doing is we&#8217;re building a tremendous foundation for the future.”
That’s fine, but he also needs to explain if that is the case, what is the tremendous foundation that is going to lead to future growth? How do we get from point A to point B in a way that doesn&#8217;t blow up?
More than half of Americans are heavily invested in the stock market, so this is not a “rich people problem.” This is an “everybody” problem.
I understand the notion that trade deficits, where we buy more from people than they buy from us, somehow reflects American weakness. But the reality is that there are many poor countries with trade surpluses, and there are many rich countries with trade deficits.
Trade deficits are not necessarily what they appear to be. The reality is that if we spend more money abroad than people spend here, those dollars come back, often in the form of governments either holding our dollars as the global reserve currency or other governments buying American bonds, which funds our growing national debt, which is out of control.
The reality is — as I have said and will continue to say — we are not solving our national debt problem unless we take a look at the very things no one on either side wants to take a look at: Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security — means-tested welfare programs. Those are the massive drivers of the American national debt.
But the way the markets are increasingly reading President Trump’s actions on a global scale is that he wants to reshore everything and to withdraw from the world.
And that is not going to have beneficial effects for the American consumer, the American producer, and the American economy at large.

Traders Search For Havens As US Stock Selloff Rattles Nerves

Stock Market Plunges. What Happens Next?

Ben Shapiro

Money

California Democrat activist Joseph Sanberg, a multimillionaire who fashioned himself an anti-poverty crusader, was arrested Monday on suspicion that he conspired to defraud investors in his &#8220;green&#8221; finance company, Aspiration.
&#8220;Joseph Neal Sanberg, 45, of Orange, the co-founder and largest shareholder of the financial and sustainability services company Aspiration Partners, Inc., was arrested today on a federal criminal complaint alleging that he conspired to defraud two investor funds of at least $145 million,&#8221; Joseph McNally, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/joseph-sanberg-co-founder-aspiration-partners-arrested-conspiring-defraud-investment">said</a> in a statement.
Aspiration Inc. was backed by actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert Downey Jr. The <a href="https://www.aspiration.com/">“climate-friendly banking”</a> platform courted users through Democrat messaging, telling them that, unlike with traditional Wall Street firms, with Aspiration they could “do good” and “do well” because “clean rich is the new filthy rich.”
But a <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.955039/gov.uscourts.cacd.955039.26.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">plea agreement</a> signed by Aspiration board member Ibrahim AlHusseini, unsealed Monday, said that AlHusseini falsified financial statements &#8220;at Sanberg’s direction and with Sanberg’s assistance,&#8221; including one that claimed an account &#8220;held more than $199 million&#8221; when it actually &#8220;held a total of approximately $2,693.63.&#8221;
&#8220;Sanberg obtained $145 million in loans secured by AlHusseini, who Sanberg knew did not have sufficient financial assets to cover those loans if Sanberg defaulted. Sanberg hid this fact from investors, then defaulted on the loans, which resulted in at least $145 million in losses,&#8221; the Justice Department said.
Sanberg reportedly mulled <a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-joe-sanberg-presidential-run-20190528-story.html">running for president</a> last year, and his website bills him as a &#8220;leader nationwide and in California on economic and social justice.&#8221; His <a href="https://www.joesanberg.com/advocacy/">platform</a> included &#8220;taxing the ultra wealthy&#8221; and &#8220;passing a Green New Deal.&#8221;
Sanberg, whose wealth came in a large part from an early investment in meal delivery company Blue Apron, also led the charge to raise the minimum wage to $18 in California, pouring $10 million into a ballot initiative that was narrowly voted down last year. Top Democrats have credited him for the successful initiative to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit in the state — a move that extended one of the most fraud-ridden programs in government to illegal immigrants.
AlHusseini donated more than $300,000 to Democrats, was on the board of anti-Israel group CodePink, and was cited by the environmentalist Sierra Club <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/yes-reversing-climate-crisis-can-be-profitable" target="_blank" rel="noopener">as proof</a> that “reversing the climate crisis can be profitable.”
The implosion of Aspiration, once the poster child for &#8220;green&#8221; finance, also raises questions about the billions of dollars the Biden administration sent to green groups, such as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/stacey-abrams-linked-group-received-2b-from-biden-admin-slush-fund-doge-finds">$2 billion</a> to a nonprofit connected to Stacy Abrams that previously had only $100.
The criminal complaint against Sanberg focuses on the same $145 million deal for which AlHusseini was arrested in October.  Investors agreed to lend Sanberg money because it was collateralized with Aspiration shares that AlHusseini agreed to buy from them in the event of a default. Sanberg never paid back the loan, and AlHusseini refused to buy the shares. The investors had relied on bank statements showing AlHusseini had plenty of money to buy the shares, but the FBI said in the AlHusseini complaint that those statements were fake. The complaint included a list comparing 24 allegedly fake bank statements to real ones.
<div id="attachment_881341" style="width: 500px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-881341" class="size-large wp-image-881341" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/fbi-490x576.png" alt="" width="490" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/fbi-490x576.png 490w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/fbi-255x300.png 255w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/fbi-768x903.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/fbi.png 1240w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 490px) 100vw, 490px" />AlHusseini FBI complaint</div>
AlHusseini acknowledged in his plea agreement that the statements were fake, and said Sanberg put him up to it.  &#8220;At Sanberg’s direction, defendant made untrue statements,&#8221; it said. &#8220;Defendant and Sanberg knew that the falsified statements inflated the value of the assets in defendant’s accounts by tens of millions of dollars.&#8221;
AlHusseini was paid $12 million for agreeing to backstop the loan, some of which Sanberg wired to Saudi Arabia, according to the FBI complaint against AlHusseini.
The invoices&#8217; apparent falsity emerged through a civil lawsuit after the lenders sued Sanberg and AlHusseini in New York state court. That court issued a $78 million judgement against AlHusseini, and also a <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25549820-652063-2023-clover-private-credit-v-clover-private-credit-decision-order-on-199/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$209 million</a> judgement against Sanberg.
On October 7, AlHusseini was arrested at the airport and held in jail as a flight risk — the civil lawsuit said he transferred $300 million to his native Saudi Arabia to avoid the judgment — before CodePink founder Jodie Evans and other liberal bigwigs put up their <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-green-investor-climate-change-activist-charged-with-securities-fraud" target="_blank" rel="noopener">homes as bail</a> in December. On January 10, the New York judge held him in contempt of court for spending money on luxuries and donations to Democrat politicians instead of paying his debt.
The Daily Wire reported that criminal complaint against AlHusseini was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/career-doj-prosecutor-dismissed-fraud-case-against-dem-megadonor-hours-before-trump-took-office">dropped</a> on January 21. A lawyer hired by AlHusseini, John Lambert, told The Daily Wire that AlHusseini&#8217;s “record has been dismissed pursuant to court order and all records related thereto have been destroyed.”
But McNally, the prosecutor, said in his statement that the complaint against AlHusseini was dismissed &#8220;to facilitate his cooperation in the prosecution of others, including Sanberg,&#8221; and that AlHusseini &#8220;pleaded guilty today to an information charging him with wire fraud for falsifying documents and information to assist Sanberg.&#8221;
AlHusseini had already signed a plea agreement at the time Lambert made that statement, which admits to his guilt and that his victim &#8220;had losses of approximately $145 million, and defendant personally received approximately $12.3 million.&#8221;
Court <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.955039/gov.uscourts.cacd.955039.37.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">papers</a> dated February 25 and unsealed Monday say that AlHusseini &#8220;began supervision by agents of the FBI&#8221; and &#8220;at the direction of the government, defendant could contact Aspiration, including Joe Sanberg&#8221; and board chair Nate Redmond.
<div id="attachment_886519" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-886519" class="size-large wp-image-886519" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-540880634-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-540880634-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-540880634-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-540880634-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-540880634-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-540880634-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-540880634-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-540880634-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Then-Chairman of the Jefferson Awards Foundation Joe Sanberg speaks in 2016. (Photo by Larry French/Getty Images for Jefferson Awards Foundation)</div>
McNally said “Our prosecutors and law enforcement partners have worked methodically to secure a guilty plea from one of the main offenders in this case and have now charged another member of the conspiracy. We will continue to ensure that markets and businesses receive an honest and level playing field in which to operate.”
Though Monday&#8217;s complaint against Sanberg focuses on the $145 million deal, the cooperation suggests that more charges could come, given a trail of red flags around Aspiration — a company which in some ways mirrors Sam Bankman Fried&#8217;s infamous FTX.
Aspiration offered big companies the opportunity to purchase “carbon credit” indulgences to offset their emissions. That&#8217;s big money with a hard-to-prove connection to actual value, but with hype and ideology potentially warping customers&#8217; judgements. Like FTX, Aspiration spent disproportionately on marketing, such as a partnership with the <a href="https://x.com/lukerosiak/status/1896766335704785083" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LA Clippers</a>. In 2021, as left-wing fervor peaked, Aspiration sought to go public at a $2 billion valuation — but there are indications it may have juiced itself with fake revenue to try to get that valuation.
A Bloomberg investigation in July suggested that Sanberg sought to inflate the company’s value through <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-07-10/questionable-deals-caused-a-climate-finance-startup-to-unravel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dubious deals</a> as it prepared to go public. Millions of dollars in purported income from customers were traced to an LLC called Day 12 that was once registered to Sanberg. In another case, a nonprofit was purportedly going to pay Aspiration 10 times its annual revenue. Yet another deal appeared to have a Colombian model pay $50,000 a month to Aspiration, after which a company tied to Sanberg would pay her the same amount. The company’s auditor refused to work with it any longer, Bloomberg said.
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.
<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-18/doj-cftc-probe-carbon-credit-firm-aspiration-tapped-to-turn-la-nba-arena-green" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bloomberg</a> reported last January that “the Justice Department and Commodity Futures Trading Commission are looking into whether Aspiration misled customers about the quality of carbon offsets it was selling.” <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/the-celebrity-backed-green-fintech-company-that-isnt-as-green-as-it-seems" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ProPublica</a> reported in 2021 that Aspiration said it had “5 million passionate members” when it actually had half a million active customer accounts, and told customers that for a dollar, they’d plant a tree to help the climate, when it only cost a few cents to do so.
Sanberg has not responded to requests from The Daily Wire. Nor has Andrei Cherny, who founded the company along with Sanberg and was pushed out in 2021. Cherny worked for Bill Clinton and Al Gore, ran the Arizona Democrat Party, and ran for Congress in 2024. He sued Aspiration in December, saying it had not paid him money he was owed, but dropped the suit a few weeks later.
Aspiration did not return a request for comment, including asking whether Nate Redmond still chairs the board.
McNally said &#8220;If convicted of the charge in the complaint, Sanberg would face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. AlHusseini faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. The FBI and the United States Postal Inspection Service are investigating the case.&#8221;

Joe Sanberg

California Politico And ‘Anti-Poverty’ Activist Arrested For Alleged ‘Green’ Finance Fraud

California

Environment

Truth Social, the social media company founded by former President Donald Trump, is set to go public as soon as next week after shareholders voted Friday to approve a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-could-make-billions-from-truth-social-stock-as-company-looks-to-go-public" target="_blank" rel="noopener">merger</a> with a shell company.
The merger means those who hold stock in Digital World Acquisition, a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), will now be shareholders of Trump Media &amp; Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/22/business/trump-media-merger-truth-social.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. The deal will also provide Trump Media with more than $300 million, and the company will replace Digital World Acquisition on the stock market under the ticker DJT, Trump&#8217;s initials.
Based on Digital World Acquisition&#8217;s current price of nearly $42 a share, Trump Media will hit the market with a value of around $5 billion, meaning Trump&#8217;s 60% stake in the company will boost his net worth by more than $3 billion. Thanks to Trump supporters turning Digital World Acquisition into a “<a href="https://www.investopedia.com/meme-stock-5206762" target="_blank" rel="noopener">meme stock,</a>” shares for the company have skyrocketed since January, moving up from around $17 to where it currently stands at around $42.
While the former president stands ready to make billions of dollars, the merger likely won&#8217;t result in an immediate windfall for him. The former president would have to hold his shares for six months before he could sell any of them unless Digital World Acquisition waives its agreement, The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/02/15/truth-social-trump-merger-sec/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. But even if the agreement were waived, the potential of the company’s largest stockholder dumping his holdings could tank the stock price.
The Truth Social deal, which could provide Trump with an extra source of cash, comes before the Monday deadline set by Judge Arthur Engoron for Trump to post bond in the $454 million civil business fraud judgment against him. However, some remain skeptical about Trump’s chances to rake in billions from the deal even with the Trump Media&#8217;s current valuation of over $5 billion.
University of Florida Finance Professor Jay Ritter told the Post that the current value of the merged company doesn’t line up with the actual performance of the company, Trump Media. Ritter called Trump Media “a money-losing company that generates less than $5 million per year,” adding that Digital World Acquisition appears to be “a classic meme stock, whose price is totally unrelated to the underlying fundamentals.”
Over the first nine months of 2023, Trump Media reported a net loss of $49 million on $3.38 million in revenue, according to <a href="https://www.axios.com/2024/03/22/trump-truth-social-dwac-merger-public" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Axios</a>.
Earlier on Friday, Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-says-he-has-nearly-500m-in-cash-as-bond-deadline-for-ny-civil-fraud-judgment-approaches" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> on Truth Social that he now has $500 million cash on hand ahead of the Monday deadline to post bond for the $454 million judgment.
&#8220;Through hard work, talent, and luck, I currently have almost five hundred million dollars in cash, a substantial amount of which I intended to use in my campaign for president,&#8221; Trump wrote. “The often overturned political hack judge on the rigged and corrupt A.G. case, where I have done nothing wrong, knew this, wanted to take it away from me, and that’s where and why he came up with the shocking number which, coupled with his crazy interest demand, is approximately $454,000,000. I did nothing wrong except win an election in 2016 that I wasn’t expected to win, did even better in 2020, and now lead, by a lot, in 2024. This is communism in America.”

Shareholders Approve Truth Social Merger; Trump’s Social Media Company To Go Public

Shareholders Approve Truth Social Merger; Trump's Social Media Company To Go Public

Social Media

What would the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) do if it learned that a company conspired with its Board of Directors to destroy the market value of the company by $50 billion, by alienating its customers and depressing its stock price? There would be an investigation. Perhaps fines would be levied, perhaps the company would even be delisted from the Stock Exchange. If the SEC learned that a company was making decisions that did not allow them to live up to its fiduciary responsibility to its shareholders, action of some sort would be taken.
The SEC’s Division of <a href="https://www.secatty.com/legal-blog/sec-investigations/#:~:text=The%20SEC's%20Division%20of%20Enforcement,common%20reasons%20for%20SEC%20investigations.">Enforcement</a> oversees the investigation of alleged breaches of securities law — including negligence and market manipulation. Would making a decision that the Board of Directors knows will lead to the destruction of corporate earnings and shareholder value meet the requirements of an investigation? Does purposefully destroying market valuation count as market manipulation?
Dick’s Sporting Goods was one of the first companies to go woke. Shortly after the Parkland School shooting in Florida in February 2018, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/10/business/dicks-sporting-goods-remove-guns-from-440-stores/index.html">Dick’s</a> announced that it would stop selling semi-automatic weapons. They also stopped selling guns to people under 21, who otherwise could legally purchase a firearm. When asked how much he estimated he’d lose following the decision to stop selling to people under 21, Dick’s <a href="https://www.pghcitypaper.com/news/dicks-sporting-goods-ceo-feels-fine-about-losing-250-million-following-gun-sale-restrictions-16002028">CEO</a> Edward Stack said, “a quarter billion dollars,” or $250 million. This does not include additional lost revenue that came from not participating in the surge in gun sales during the BLM riots in 2020. Was Stack acting on behalf of his beliefs or looking to maximize shareholder value?
Fast forward to 2023. Woke companies flaunt their values and their Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) scores, knowing these positions will destroy the value of the company.  
According to <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12120649/Anheuser-Busch-lost-staggering-15-7-BILLION-value-Bud-Light-controversy-began.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Daily Mail</a>, Bud Light’s parent company Anheuser-Busch has seen its market value “plunge $15.7 billion since the disastrous campaign with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.” 
Target has lost $9 billion in market value since “angry social media users called for a boycott of the Minneapolis-based retailer over its rollout of the “PRIDE” collection featuring LGBTQ-friendly clothing for children,” according to <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/05/25/target-loses-8b-in-week-since-boycott-calls-over-pride-collection/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The New York Post</a>
Not to be outdone, <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/economy/disney-has-lost-50-billion-in-value-since-war-with-florida-began" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Washington Examiner</a> reports Disney’s “stock has lost nearly $50 billion in value since the start of March, when it took a political gamble to oppose Florida’s” education law, the so-called “don’t say gay,” bill. 
Shares of North Face’s parent company, VF Corp, dropped sharply on May 24, after “reporting Q4 2023 earnings and revenue that beat analyst estimates, just a day after <a href="https://finbold.com/north-face-shares-bleed-on-drag-queen-come-outad/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">VF Corp</a> was embroiled in controversy for releasing a ‘come out’ pride ad, featuring activist Pattie Gonia. In the past month, shares of VF Corp plummeted nearly 20%.”
Few people outside of the boardroom and the advertising agencies who pitched these ideas were surprised by the backlash from these corporate decisions. History has taught us this will happen. The <a href="https://thehill.com/changing-america/enrichment/arts-culture/515665-new-poll-says-nba-ratings-have-plunged-because-of/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NBA</a> and <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/nfl/article-11634405/NFL-announces-3-DECREASE-ratings-2022-regular-season.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NFL</a> saw declines in viewership, and subsequently advertising dollars, when they went “super-woke” during the BLM riots, allowing players to wear social justice messages on uniforms and painting social justice messages on the court and field.
John and Jane Public do not want politics in their sports. They do not want transgender activists selling them beer or outdoor clothing, and they certainly do not want to see “tuck-friendly” bathing suits at their local Target. And if by chance they can save the <a href="https://365atlantatraveler.com/how-much-does-it-cost-to-go-to-disney-world/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$4,000+</a> to visit Disney World, they do not want to be “educated” about Florida’s laws about teaching sexuality and sexual orientation to its students. Joe and Jane Public go on vacation, watch sports, and drink beer to get away from the world, not to have the woke world shoved in their face.
So, when does a woke corporation open itself to class-action lawsuits from its shareholders for destroying value? Hang on sports fans, I think we will soon find out.
Jim Nelles is a Navy veteran and supply chain consultant based in Chicago. His articles have appeared in The Washington Examiner, Newsweek, Foxnews.com, and The Daily Wire. He has served as a chief procurement officer, chief supply chain officer, and chief operations officer for multiple companies.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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