Democrats weaponized a powerful tool to destroy conservative businesses and ministries.
The Biden administration protected the scheme for four years while victims lost everything.
But a Trump regulator stopped one Obama scheme targeting conservatives dead in its tracks.
OCC cracks down on debanking after years of Democrat protection
Top federal banking regulator Jonathan Gould told executives this week he's making absolutely sure that major banks abandoned their discriminatory "debanking" policies that destroyed businesses and lives based on political beliefs.¹
Gould, who heads the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, announced supervisors are double-checking that the nation's largest banks really did stop blacklisting entire sectors — especially firearms dealers — from accessing basic banking services.²
This oversight follows President Trump's June executive order directing banks to stop denying services based on industry type or political considerations.³
Supervisors are now ensuring the biggest banks comply with the updated approach that treats all Americans fairly regardless of their beliefs.
The announcement comes after years of documented discrimination against conservatives, Christians, and businesses in disfavored industries under Democrat administrations.
Bank executives speaking to media revealed the ugly truth about how Obama and Biden pressured financial institutions into becoming political weapons.
Bank insiders expose years of regulatory pressure
Senior banking executives confirmed what conservatives knew all along — they faced relentless pressure from Obama and Biden regulators to deny services to conservative clients and politically incorrect industries.⁴
"Those pressures were very, very real," a senior executive told Fox News Digital. "When your regulator gives you a suggestion, it's not a suggestion, it's an order. The political stuff is very real, those pressures are real."⁵
The executives described how regulators exploited ambiguous federal laws to pursue political objectives without ever needing to explicitly name targets.
"When there's ambiguity in the law, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and for a long time the beholder was the Obama and Biden administration," one official explained.⁶
Banks were constantly pressured to file more "suspicious activity reports" and debank more customers even when no actual suspicious activity existed.
The practice originated with Operation Choke Point — Obama's 2013 Department of Justice initiative that labeled legal businesses like firearms dealers, payday lenders, and ammunition sellers as "high risk."⁷
A House Oversight Committee report found the strategy was designed to "choke out" industries the Obama administration didn't like by scaring banks into cutting ties.⁸
Trump ended Operation Choke Point in 2017, but Biden resurrected it as "Operation Choke Point 2.0" — this time targeting cryptocurrency firms and expanding the blacklist to include conservative organizations and Christians.⁹
Bank of America voluntarily shared customers' private financial data with the federal government as part of a wildly overbroad surveillance scheme to identify supposed "domestic terrorists" after January 6.¹⁰
The Treasury Department flagged anyone making transactions at stores like Cabela's and Bass Pro Shop or peer-to-peer payments involving terms like "Trump" or "MAGA" — with zero evidence tying those individuals to criminal conduct.¹¹
Banks used negative media coverage against conservatives as "reputational risk" to justify closing accounts — creating a vicious cycle where leftist media attacks led to financial blackballing.¹²
Even Trump and his family weren't safe from the discrimination.
Trump accused JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America of rejecting over $1 billion in deposits from him personally.¹³
Melania Trump revealed in her memoir that she and son Barron were debanked in 2021 after Trump left office.
"I was shocked and dismayed to learn that my long-time bank decided to terminate my account and deny my son the opportunity to open a new one," the former First Lady wrote. "This decision appeared to be rooted in political discrimination, raising serious concerns about civil rights violations."¹⁴
Sam Brownback, chairman of the National Committee for Religious Freedom, charged that JPMorgan debanked his nonprofit in 2022 for defending Christian values.¹⁵
Fifteen state attorneys general sent a letter to Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan about the bank's "troubling financial pattern" of debanking Christian organizations.¹⁶
"Bank of America has a track record of de-banking religious organizations," the letter said. "We are especially troubled by Bank of America's track record of discriminating against religious ministries."¹⁷
Indigenous Advance Ministries, a Tennessee-based Christian nonprofit, had its accounts terminated without explanation after years of banking with JPMorgan Chase.¹⁸
The practice left countless Americans unable to pay employees, suppliers, or taxes — destroying livelihoods and businesses without due process or recourse.
Trump administration strikes back hard
Trump signed his executive order "Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans" in August 2025 after bank executives finally started speaking out about the regulatory pressure they faced.¹⁹
The order directed federal banking regulators to remove "reputation risk" considerations from all examination manuals and guidance documents — eliminating the tool Obama and Biden officials used to pressure banks into discrimination.²⁰
Within 180 days, regulators must identify banks that engaged in unlawful debanking and take "appropriate remedial action" including fines, consent decrees, and other disciplinary measures.²¹
The OCC already removed references to reputation risk from its handbooks and guidance documents and will soon propose removing those references from regulations entirely.²²
The Federal Reserve announced in June 2025 it would no longer consider reputation risk in bank examinations.²³
The Small Business Administration must require financial institutions to identify, notify, and reinstate customers denied services due to politicized debanking by December 5, 2025.²⁴
Regulators must review supervisory and complaint data to identify banks that engaged in unlawful debanking based on religion and refer cases to the Department of Justice for enforcement where appropriate.²⁵
The Treasury Secretary must develop a comprehensive strategy to combat politicized debanking within 180 days — including recommendations for legislative action and new regulations.²⁶
Several states already enacted their own anti-debanking laws after years of federal inaction.
Florida got fed up with waiting for Washington and passed its own law — House Bill 989 went into effect in 2024 with penalties for banks caught discriminating.²⁷
Tennessee's Bill Lee beat everyone to the punch, signing the nation's first anti-debanking law in April 2024 targeting banks over $100 billion that play politics with accounts.²⁸
Idaho jumped in with its own protections after watching Christians and gun owners get blacklisted across the country.²⁹
Trump's making sure banks learn a hard lesson — the days of destroying conservatives' livelihoods for their beliefs are done.
Democrats turned financial institutions into partisan weapons for more than a decade under Obama and Biden.
They destroyed businesses, ruined families, and violated civil rights — all while claiming discrimination didn't exist.
Now Trump and his regulators are making sure banks can never again deny Americans access to the financial system based on their beliefs or politics.
¹ Reuters, "U.S. bank regulator looking to ensure big banks have scrapped 'debanking' policies," November 4, 2025.
² Ibid.
³ Ibid.
⁴ Fox Business, "Bank executives blow the whistle on how Obama, Biden admins pressured them to debank conservatives," August 19, 2025.
⁵ Ibid.
⁶ Ibid.
⁷ Wikipedia, "Operation Choke Point," accessed November 4, 2025.
⁸ Ibid.
⁹ New York University School of Law, "'Operation Chokepoint 2.0': De-Banking Policies and the Adverse Use of Reputational Risk in Bank Supervision," December 19, 2024.
¹⁰ The Burning Platform, "Major Banks Debanking Christians," April 23, 2024.
¹¹ The White House, "Guaranteeing Fair Banking For All Americans," August 7, 2025.
¹² Fox Business, "Bank executives blow the whistle on how Obama, Biden admins pressured them to debank conservatives," August 19, 2025.
¹³ New Conservative Post, "Obama and Biden Accused of Pressuring Banks to Target Conservatives," August 25, 2025.
¹⁴ Ibid.
¹⁵ Ibid.
¹⁶ The Burning Platform, "Major Banks Debanking Christians," April 23, 2024.
¹⁷ Ibid.
¹⁸ Lee Fang, "Debanking Realignment: CFPB to Protect Christian Free Speech," August 14, 2024.
¹⁹ The White House, "Guaranteeing Fair Banking For All Americans," August 7, 2025.
²⁰ Ibid.
²¹ Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, "Executive Order Targets Debanking and Calls for Review of Financial Institution Practices," August 2025.
²² Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, "Comptroller Gould Issues Statement on Executive Order 'Guaranteeing Fair Banking For All Americans,'" August 7, 2025.
²³ Gibson Dunn, "President Trump Issues Executive Order Addressing 'Politicized or Unlawful' Debanking," August 8, 2025.
²⁴ Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, "Executive Order Targets Debanking and Calls for Review of Financial Institution Practices," August 2025.
²⁵ The White House, "Guaranteeing Fair Banking For All Americans," August 7, 2025.
²⁶ Gibson Dunn, "President Trump Issues Executive Order Addressing 'Politicized or Unlawful' Debanking," August 8, 2025.
²⁷ Florida Chief Financial Officer, "CFO Patronis to Congress: Investigate the Biden-Harris Administration for Supporting Debanking of U.S. Citizens," August 14, 2024.
²⁸ Lee Fang, "Debanking Realignment: CFPB to Protect Christian Free Speech," August 14, 2024.
²⁹ Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, "Executive Order Targets Debanking and Calls for Review of Financial Institution Practices," August 2025.
