President Trump is strongly critical of proxy advisory services and last year directed several federal agencies — including the Department of Labor (DOL) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) — to do something about it. In his December 11, 2025, executive order, President Trump stated that “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.1
Even before the executive order, DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) drew a legal “line in the sand” regarding what one of its officials termed “politicized investing,”2 reminding plan fiduciaries that ERISA does not permit them to “subordinate the interests of the participants and beneficiaries in their retirement income or financial benefits under the plan to other objectives.”3 More recently, EBSA Assistant Secretary Daniel Aronowitz announced that EBSA will prioritize civil investigations involving breaches “of the duty of loyalty [including self-dealing and conduct promoting] goals unrelated to participants’ best interests, such as the promotion of environmental, social, or governance objectives.”4