With the recent stroke of a pen, President Trump took what could be one of the most consequential steps toward returning Corporate America to its investors: the American people.
For years, foreign-owned proxy advisors ISS and Glass Lewis—together controlling more than 90 percent of the market— have exercised near total dominance over the proxy advisory industry.
That dominance has been used to weaponize the retirement savings of ordinary Americans. By leveraging their outsized influence over shareholder voting, ISS and Glass Lewis have pressured companies to adopt left-wing ideological policies while routinely blocking efforts to restore corporate governance to a position of neutrality that serves shareholders and the broader public.
Until earlier this year, ISS and Glass Lewis consistently promoted some of the most aggressive demands of the DEI and ESG agenda, pressuring companies to impose identity-based board mandates and backing activist campaigns such as Engine No. 1’s effort to place climate activists on ExxonMobil’s board.
They have likewise opposed conservative shareholder efforts to impose transparency and fiduciary discipline. For example, ISS and Glass Lewis urged shareholders at Bank of America and Citigroup to vote against proposals seeking disclosure about politically motivated debanking. They also recommended that Intel shareholders dismiss questions about the long-term fiduciary risks of the company’s abortion-travel benefit policy.
In 2024, the firms went further still, opposing a proposal at Apple that sought reporting on the consequences of the company’s decision to remove an iOS software function designed to identify child sex abuse material—a move that led one Apple executive to describe the company as “the greatest platform for distributing child porn.”
The pattern is unmistakable. Through their control of proxy voting, ISS and Glass Lewis have transformed American-owned corporations into vehicles for advancing ideological priorities that voters have repeatedly rejected at the ballot box. Yet, even as they have done so, ISS and Glass Lewis have never been held accountable to the average American investor.
Those days appear to be coming to a close. The President’s executive order, Protecting American Investors From Foreign-Owned And Politically-Motivated Proxy Advisors, signed Dec. 11, directs multiple agencies in the executive branch to begin holding the duopoly accountable for its actions. As the Wall Street Journal editorial board neatly summarized, the order will “help businesses focus on maximizing returns for shareholders rather than pleasing proxy overlords that have no stake in their companies’ success.”
It's that, and then some.
Following recommendations submitted by Alliance Defending Freedom and others within the conservative shareholder movement, the order directs U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins to revise or rescind current SEC rules that have allowed ISS and Glass Lewis to prioritize political interests over shareholder returns—an important step toward restoring fairness and transparency for investors of every political and religious stripe.
But the order does not stop there. It also directs Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson to review whether ISS and Glass Lewis are violating antitrust laws, while tasking the Department of Labor to strengthen the fiduciary standards of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to protect Americans whose retirement savings should be invested for long-term value, not ideological pet projects.
There should be no scenario in which an American’s retirement account hinges on the political views of foreign-owned actors such as ISS and Glass Lewis. These firms are free to participate in the U.S. economy—but not without accountability to the American people.
Consistent with that principle, the order also calls on Ferguson and Attorney General Pam Bondi to review any ongoing state investigations into ISS and Glass Lewis to determine whether the companies have violated federal antitrust and consumer protection laws. That directive is in keeping with a lawsuit filed by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier this November that alleges wrongdoing by ISS and Glass Lewis on both counts. That suit followed years of unanswered concerns raised by state attorneys general, financial officers, and investors seeking transparency and viewpoint-neutral proxy advice.
President Trump’s order marks a significant turning point in the ongoing effort to refocus Corporate America on its core purpose: delivering economic value by producing excellent goods and services that improve people’s lives. No investor’s long-term interests are served when corporations drift into left-wing political activism—yet that drift has become commonplace, driven in large part by the unchecked influence of ISS and Glass Lewis.
Americans deserve to know what they’re voting for in the boardrooms of the companies they own. No one should have to worry that their investment dollars are being used to undermine their financial security, their convictions, or their country.
President Trump’s order recognizes that reality, and that’s good news for every American.
