Nikki Haley
Nikki Haley

Time for Nikki Haley to show leadership. In suspending her campaign for the GOP presidential nomination, Nikki Haley said “it’s up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party who did not support him, and I hope he does.”

Fat chance of that. He couldn’t care less about them.

In January, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “Anyone who makes a contribution to Birdbrain [his endearing nickname for Haley] from this moment forth will be permanently barred from the MAGA camp. We don’t want them. We won’t accept them.”

How can Haley supporters shift to a guy who tried to stage a coup, botched the pandemic, recommended that COVID-19 patients inject themselves with bleach, kowtowed to Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, tried to shake-down Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy, wrote love letters to North Korean maniac Kim Jung-un, praised the very fine people at the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, separated immigrant families, and faces 91 felony charges.

It’s Haley who has to make the tough decision and guide her supporters. She should show some backbone and recommend that they withhold their backing of Trump and MAGA World.

Joe Biden has already made his pitch. Following the decision to suspend her campaign, Biden issued the following statement:

“There is a place for them in my campaign. I know there is a lot we won’t agree on. But on the fundamental issues of preserving American democracy, on standing up for the rule of law, on treating each other with decency and dignity and respect, on preserving NATO and standing up to America’s adversaries, I hope and believe we can find common ground.”

Biden praised Haley for the courage to speak the truth about Trump [even it was a little late in the game] and the chaos that always follows him along with his inability to tell right from wrong.

Haley should reciprocate. Her pitch to supporters should be: Let’s keep Trump out of the White House and American democracy alive.

ACCP applauds the SEC. The Association of Corporate Citizenship Professionals said the Securities and Exchange Commission’s new rules requiring standardized climate-based reporting will provide much clarity for PR people engaged in sustainability and social impact programs.

The SEC says the rules reflect its efforts to respond to investors’ demand for more consistent, comparable, and reliable about the financial effects of climate-related risks on a company’s operations and how to manage those risks while balancing concerns about mitigating the associated costs of the rules.

Disclosures about climate risks will now be required in SEC filings (annual reports, registration statements) rather than on corporate websites.

The SEC set out a “clear path forward for corporate executives to develop sustainability programs that are fully funded and resourced in order to meet these new requirements,” said ACCP CEO Carolyn Berkowitz.

With the rules finalized, Berkowitz said companies can now focus on fully funding CSR & ESG functions to implement climate-based strategies that align with their values and benefit.

Letitia James Loves the “E” in ESG. Wall Street may be down on ESG but the New York attorney general has given a full-throated endorsement of environmental PR.

In filing a greenwashing suit against JBS USA Food, the American unit of the world’s largest producer of beef products, James noted that consumers worldwide are increasingly concerned about their impact on the environment and put greater trust in companies and brands that pledge to be sustainable or climate conscious.

She cited studies that have shown that people are influenced by a company’s environmental reputation and are willing to change their habits to switch to more environmentally friendly products: more than two-thirds of American adults are willing to pay more for sustainable products.

James alleges that JBS’ greenwashing is ripping off consumers who are willing to spend a little more for products that are better for the environment.

The AG believes JBS pledge to be “Net Zero by 2024” is bunk.

She claims that JBS Group and JBS USA have never calculated the their total greenhouse gas emissions, and therefore had no way of knowing whether they could successfully reduce those emissions to net zero by 2040.

Her lawsuit seeks to stop JBS from making the net zero claim, disgorge all ill-gotten profits and pay penalties.

On its website, JBS still features the Net Zero in 2024 line.

To achieve that goal, it promises to invest $1B to upgrade facilities and $100M for R&D by 2030, reduce emissions corporate wide by 30 percent, use 100 percent renewable energy and tie executive comp to environmental performance.

That sure sounds good on paper, but AG James isn’t buying it.

Are you trying to reach Teneo, the global CEO advisory; or Teneo Network, the conservative group out to destroy liberal influence by waging a holy war against “woke capitalism?"

Right-wing activist and Federalist Society co-chairman Leonard Leo chairs Teneo Network, which creates videos designed to roll back liberal influences in Washington, Wall Street and Silicon Valley.

Leo’s Marble Freedom Trust in 2021 received a $1.6B donation from Chicago industrialist Barre Seid to advocate for conservative judges and fight over abortion rights, voting rules and climate change matters. It is the largest political donation ever.

“Teneo is a national network where the most influential leaders, the most promising ideas, and the right resources come together to launch projects that reaffirm and renew the promise of the American experiment,” according to its website.

It exists to “recruit, connect, and deploy talented conservatives who lead opinion and shape the industries that shape society.”

ProPublica and Documented profiled Teneo Network in a 2023 expose called “Inside the Private and Confidential Conservative Group That Promises to Crush Liberal Dominance.”

The global CEO advisory mustn’t be too happy sharing a name with the arch-conservative rabble-rousers.