The left-wing environmental, social, and governance movement, which only a few years ago was deeply embedded in corporate America, is now facing an assault on one of its greatest sources of leverage and control—the corporate proxy vote.

Proxy voting is the process by which asset managers vote on corporate actions on behalf of the end investors in their funds. President Donald Trump took action on Dec. 11 against two firms that have a virtual duopoly in advising these asset managers how to vote.

Trump’s executive order charged that the “foreign-owned and politically-motivated” proxy agents “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.”

Two firms —German-owned Institutional Shareholder Services and Canadian-owned Glass Lewis—control more than 90% of the proxy advisory market. Many conservatives applauded the action against them.

“This Executive Order is an incredible step towards curtailing the runaway power of two foreign owned proxy advisors, ISS and Glass-Lewis, who have been using their outsized influence to push a........

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