Here in Texas, we don’t take kindly to being told what we can drive, what we can power our homes with, or what companies we’re allowed to invest in. We believe in free markets, hard work, and the God-given right to prosper without interference from unelected elites in Washington or Wall Street.
But for the last several years, Texans have been paying the price — at the pump, at the grocery store, and on our monthly bills — while the federal government turned a blind eye to the real sources of economic pain.
The last administration turned antitrust enforcement into political theater. Instead of targeting real collusion, price-gouging, and market manipulation, Biden’s team used antitrust policy to blame the private sector for the inflation it caused. It dragged Visa into court over routine debit card fees, falsely claiming that the company “raises the price of nearly everything,” and blocked low-cost airlines Spirit Airlines and JetBlue from merging, which caused Spirit’s bankruptcy, handing market power back to the Big Four legacy carriers.
Meanwhile, real cartel behavior went unchecked, and the administration’s inflationary policies continued unabated, making life even harder for Texans throughout the state.
Under President Trump, antitrust is finally being used for what it was designed to do: protect Americans from economic coercion—not pile more on. That’s why I was proud to see the Trump Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission throw their weight behind Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s lawsuit against BlackRock and its allies in the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) movement.
When BlackRock and the others push companies like Chevron to adopt “Scope 3” emissions reduction targets, forcing them to compensate for all carbon emissions that take place at any point on its value chain, they weren’t thinking about retirees in Texas. They were thinking about winning applause from climate activists in Davos. This violates the most basic duty these firms owe their clients: fiduciary responsibility.
The law is clear: asset managers must act in the best financial interest of their clients. When firms collude to blacklist politically disfavored companies, they are breaking the law.
The Trump administration sees this for what it is: economic coercion masquerading as virtue.
That’s why the DOJ and FTC under Attorney General Pam Bondi, Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater, and Commissioner Andrew Ferguson have taken the extraordinary step of backing Texas’s antitrust lawsuit. Their statement of interest is a shot across the bow of woke capital. They are making it clear that federal enforcement will no longer be weaponized against small businesses and consumers, while powerful elites get a free pass.
Conservatives believe in free markets. But markets only work when they’re free from manipulation and collusion.
Americans didn’t vote for ESG mandates. No one elected BlackRock to make national energy policy. And yet, that’s exactly what these firms have been doing—using other people’s money to impose policies those same people would never support at the ballot box — in violation of the law.
Under President Trump, that ends. Texas has led this fight. Now, Washington is finishing it.
This isn’t just about fossil fuels or finance. It’s about protecting the Texas economy from a future where powerful elites get to decide what you’re allowed to buy, invest in, or support without ever winning an election.
And under the Trump administration, control like that won’t go unchecked anymore.
James Earl White is a former member of the Texas House of Representatives for District 19. He served on the Judiciary Committee.