A new op-ed written by Paul Mueller, a contributor for Fox News Digital, tackles the issue of whether or not the “come to Jesus” moments we’re seeing from the likes of Meta CEO and owner of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, and many other famous names in Big Tech. We’ve witnessed these individuals, previously hardcore left-wingers, flip around and warm up to President-elect Donald Trump and his followers, going so far as to toss out DEI programs and make stands for freedom of speech.
The real question though is whether or not these conversions are for real. Have these folks really experienced an awakening and are moving toward maturity in their worldviews, recognizing that progressive ideology leads to corruption and disaster?
Mueller points out in his piece that the Environmental, Social, and Governance agenda is experiencing massive setbacks, a trend that has been going on for the last 18 months. Add to this the decline of investment dollars and the collapse of the Net-Zero Insurance Alliance.
The author notes that just a month ago, a series of major banks decided to withdraw themselves from net-zero alliances. And now Meta is ripping apart its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs. It looks as if the ESG is imploding, right? Mueller says not to be so easily deceived.
“A closer look at what the banks have said reveals that they are still full of unrepentant ESG financiers. Many of the touted changes are superficial or cosmetic rather than indicative of an underlying philosophical shift,” he wrote. ”
Dozens of Fortune 500 companies (including McDonald’s and Walmart) representing trillions of dollars of market cap and millions of employees rolled back or nixed their DEI programs in 2024. ESG-labeled investment funds hemorrhaged cash over the past two years. And the incoming administration has promised to jettison DEI in federal agencies.”
“The Net-Zero Insurance Alliance has fallen apart with the mass exodus of insurance companies over the past year and a half when many state attorneys general expressed concern that participating in such an alliance might violate anti-trust and anti-collusion laws. U.S. states have withdrawn billions of dollars from Blackrock due to concerns about ESG,” Mueller explained in the article.
He then makes the point that the changes we’re seeing from Meta and banking institutions are definitely a good thing, a welcome sign that maybe things are shifting back to the right and getting back to timeless values and principles. The latest American financial institutions to take a step away from the ESG includes Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Bank of America and JP Morgan. All of those mentioned in this list have pulled out of global Net-Zero Banking Alliance. Heck, even Blackrock, which used to be a huge advocate for the ESG agenda, pullout of the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative.
If you look at the press releases from these large financial institutions, you’ll find that they are unrepentant and still intend to pursue net zero goals. For example, Goldman stated: “Our priorities remain to help our clients achieve their sustainability goals and to measure and report on our progress.” Citigroup was even more blunt: “we remain committed to reaching net zero.”
Blackrock has been the most explicitly unrepentant. “[O]ur memberships in some of these organizations have caused confusion… and subjected us to legal inquiries… [But this] does not change the way we develop products and solutions for clients or how we manage their portfolios.” Translation: “We just want to distance ourselves from problematic PR, but we are not changing a single thing about how we do business.” The moves by these large banks seem to imitate Blackrock CEO Larry Fink’s strategy of not using the term “ESG” because it was a political hot potato, but remaining committed to “sustainability.” Blackrock remains heavily invested in green infrastructure and renewable energy projects.
That’s fine if their clients explicitly ask for such investments. But as American Airlines learned last week, pension fund managers have a fiduciary obligation to pursue the best financial returns for their clients and they can be held liable for using the funds they manage for other ends.
Progress is being made, says Mueller, but these institutions and company do not appear to actually be sincere about making serious changes to their ways. The reason for the progress is rooted in these banking big shots being terrified of incurring the wrath of the public and taking criticism from the Trump administration. By withdrawing from these alliances, they produce a little goodwill for themselves.
“Most corporations, especially the unrepentant financiers, need to clean house in their human resources departments to focus on value creation rather than racial identity politics or costly virtue-signaling on environmental and social issues. And as the American Airlines case shows, companies that fail to do so may very well be violating their fiduciary duty to clients and to shareholders,” Mueller concluded.