Among a list of business-themed executive orders he signed this week, Trump signed the executive order entitled “Guaranteeing Fair Banking for all Americans.”
When it’s not being dismissed as a right-wing conspiracy theory, such as this recent CNN article, debanking is often presented as a legitimate business decision based on financial risk, such as turning down a mortgage loan due to bad credit.
Many conservatives know better, however, such as former U.N. ambassador Sam Brownback. In 2022, Brownback (pictured below) learned JP Morgan Chase had closed the account for his nonprofit, the National Committee for Religious Freedom.
Brownback’s confrontation with Chase, one of the world’s biggest financial institutions, helped the State of Tennessee become the first U.S. state to pass a debanking law.
The second U.S. state to pass a similar law was Idaho, where the state’s Constitution Party learned its account has been closed at U.S. Bank.
President Trump himself says he was cut off by Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase after his first term in the White House.
“The banks discriminated against me very badly, and I was very good to the banks,” Trump told CNBC.
Brian Knight, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, tells AFN everyone deserves access to basic financial services.
“Shutting people out because of their political or religious beliefs? That's not just wrong—it's un-American,” he said.
Knight said that "no one should be locked out of the financial system for their views," adding that "no American should have to worry that they could lose their bank account or have a payment declined" because of their religious or political beliefs.
"States like Tennessee and Idaho have taken steps to protect against discriminatory debanking with ADF's help, and we have worked diligently with federally elected officials to secure similar protections nationwide," said Knight. "We appreciate President Trump taking this issue so seriously and are eager to provide further analysis once the EO is released to the public."
ADF has represented Indigenous Advance Ministries, which aids the poor in Uganda, after the ministry said it was unfairly debanked by Bank of America.
ADF also presented the model anti-debanking legislation that was passed into law in Indiana.
Anti-gun debanking goes back to Obama
President Trump’s executive order was also applauded by National Shooting Sports Foundation, the national trade association for the firearms industry. It said in a statement the firearms industry has been the victim of an anti-gun agenda going back to the Obama administration. That liberal administration pressured the FDIC to classify firearm-related businesses as a “reputational risk,” which cut off access to financial services.
That secretive, politically based punishment continued during the first Trump administration and the Biden administration, too, according to the NSSF.
“President Trump is yet again delivering on his promise to protect Americans’ rights,” Lawrence Keane, general counsel at the NSSF, said.
Will Hild, of Consumers' Research, tells AFN a lot of Americans have been hurt by the very same powerful banks that insist debanking is a “figment of your imagination” and is not happening.
Much like the liberal news media is downplaying the issue of debanking, the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center has also mocked it, too, as a conspiracy theory. In the background, however, the SPLC has also been caught lobbying financial institutions to cut off services to their hated political enemies, such as Alliance Defending Freedom.
"They are actively urging financial institutions to debank us, yet they come out with an article saying that we're making the whole thing up,” ADF attorney Jeremy Tedesco said last year.
Hild says politically based debanking will ultimately be stopped by Congress, rather than by an executive order, since a future Democrat president might not be inclined to protect a citizen’s access to a bank.
There is currently legislation in Congress, the Fair Access to Banking Act. It was introduced by Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY) in the House and by Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) in the Senate.
