DeSantis praised for pulling money from BlackRock over ESG concerns: ‘Illegal leftist scam’

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was applauded for withdrawing $2 billion in assets from BlackRock, one of the world's largest investment firms, with one commentator calling environmental, social and governance investing, also known as ESG, "an illegal leftist scam."

Florida joined a growing list of states pushing back against the rise of ESG investing, especially by firms like BlackRock, which control trillions of dollars in assets.

"Using Florida's cash to fund BlackRock's social-engineering project isn't something we signed up for," tweeted Jimmy Patronis, Florida's chief financial officer, Thursday.

FORMER BLACKROCK EXECUTIVE ARGUES ESG IS BAD FOR SOCIETY AND YOUR WALLET IN WSJ OP-ED

Steve Milloy, who served on President Trump's transition team, called it a "bad day" at BlackRock. "ESG is an illegal leftist scam for circumventing democratic processes to impose arbitrary standards on corporations to hijack them for political purposes," he tweeted.

Former Republican congressional candidate Dr. Willie Montague celebrated the news on Twitter. "It's a great day when Florida's Chief Financial Officer says they're pulling $2 BILLION worth of BlackRock-managed assets. ESG policies need to die in a ditch."

Florida is not the only state that has pulled its investments from BlackRock. Texas Governor Greg Abbott tweeted that "Texas was the first state to ban BlackRock from doing business" with the state. "I signed a law in 2021 to ban financial companies that have ESG policies that discriminate against the oil & gas sector. That includes BlackRock and several other financial companies."

REPUBLICAN STATES TAKE DRASTIC MEASURE IN LATEST SALVO AGAINST ESG MOVEMENT

Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis explained the reasoning behind his decision to withdraw billions of dollars from BlackRock in an interview with Fox News Friday. "I’ve lost confidence" in BlackRock, Patronis said, adding that the company shouldn't "use the taxpayers of Florida’s money" to influence politics.... (Read more)

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