Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk are joining other Trump allies in slamming the Securities and Exchange Commission after a federal appeals court threw out the regulator’s approval of board diversity rules from the Nasdaq exchange.
Less than 24 hours after the New Orleans-based Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decided in favor of conservative groups that had challenged the rules, Ramaswamy, Musk and Sen. Mike Lee of Utah said the decision underscored what they see as underlying issues with Wall Street’s top regulator.
“When an agency like the SEC is so repeatedly & thoroughly embarrassed in federal court for flouting the law, it loses its legitimacy as a law enforcement body,” said Ramaswamy, who is heading up the so-called Department of Government Efficiency alongside Musk, in a post on X.
Musk called the SEC “just another weaponized institution doing political dirty work” in a post of his own, while Lee said the SEC “cannot be trusted.”
The attacks could offer a preview of the potential scrutiny that awaits the SEC in the incoming administration, as President-elect Donald Trump and his team look to overhaul the federal government and slash spending. Leading that charge from the outside will be Ramaswamy and Musk’s DOGE, an advisory panel that is expected to look at everything from cutting regulations to forcing the federal workforce back to the office.
The SEC has long been a popular target for conservative groups, lawmakers and business titans, including Musk. The billionaire owner of X, Tesla chief executive and Trump’s highest-profile backer has repeatedly clashed with the agency in recent years, including during the first Trump administration. Most recently, the SEC has been investigating Musk’s $44 billion purchase of X, which was then called Twitter.
An SEC spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the posts by Ramaswamy, Musk or Lee.
The Nasdaq rules were designed to require companies listed on the exchange to publicly disclose data about their board members and to have at least two members who identify as having diverse backgrounds — or for the company to explain why they don’t have those individuals in place.
But the Fifth Circuit found that the proposals “cannot be squared” with federal securities laws and that the SEC had “intruded into territory outside its ordinary domain” by approving them.
The decision, handed down more than three years after the SEC’s approval order, was the latest in a string of legal defeats for the Gary Gensler-led SEC.
Financial industry and conservative groups have launched a wide-ranging effort in recent years to knock down critical SEC rules in the courts — and particularly in the conservative-majority Fifth Circuit. An SEC spokesperson said late Wednesday that the agency is reviewing the Nasdaq ruling.
How the SEC handles the legal challenges going forward could fall on the shoulders of Trump’s pick to lead the agency, Paul Atkins. Earlier this month, the president-elect tapped the former SEC commissioner and Wall Street adviser to replace Gensler next year. If confirmed, Atkins is widely expected to pursue a business-friendly agenda that could entail walking back certain rules and lawsuits pursued by Gensler’s SEC.
Dennis Kelleher, who leads the financial reform advocacy group Better Markets, told POLITICO that the federal court ruling had little to do with the SEC or the merits of Nasdaq’s rules. Instead, he said, “it is about a biased kangaroo court weaponized with Trump-appointed judges who reflexively side with the industry against government rules regardless of facts, law or policy.”
“The goal of the industry is to turn the SEC from an effective cop on the Wall Street beat to a toothless tiger that does not do its job and cannot do its job,” Kelleher said. But, he warned, “undermining and crippling the SEC is undermining the United States capital markets, which is the jet fuel for our economy.”
