The banking industry thought they could weaponize the financial system against conservatives without consequences.
They picked the wrong fight.
And Big Banks just waived the white flag of surrender in this brutal fight with Trump that has them begging for mercy.
The Memphis Pastor Who Exposed Everything
Steve Happ was packing for a mission trip to Uganda in 2023 when Bank of America dropped a bombshell that would change everything.
The Memphis pastor received letters saying the bank was canceling his church accounts and credit cards – with over $270,000 spread across three accounts, including funds for his charity that supports orphanages.
When Happ rushed to his local branch, convinced there had to be some mistake, the manager he’d known for years delivered the cold shoulder treatment.
“She came back sort of like a robot,” Happ recalled. “All she did was quote that very same line from the letters and say, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t talk to you about this.'”
The bank’s excuse? They claimed Happ was “operating in a business type we have chosen not to service.”
But that was just the beginning of a story that would eventually reach the highest levels of government.
The Pattern Nobody Was Supposed to Notice
Look, what happened to this pastor wasn’t some isolated incident.
Bank of America didn’t just target one church – they’ve been systematically shutting down accounts belonging to conservatives, Christians, and anyone who doesn’t toe the left-wing line.
Trump himself got the same treatment when JPMorgan Chase and Capital One closed his family’s accounts after he left office in 2021.
The President tried to move his money to Bank of America, but CEO Brian Moynihan – who was “kissing Trump’s a**” when he was in the White House – suddenly couldn’t take a billion-dollar deposit from the former President.
Here’s the part that should make you furious.
Here’s where this gets really ugly.
George Hill, a supervisory intelligence analyst from the FBI’s Boston office, testified that Bank of America handed over customer transaction data to federal agents in the week after January 6th – no subpoena required.
The bank voluntarily turned over information showing which customers had used their debit or credit cards in Washington between January 5th and 7th.
The Surveillance State You Didn’t Know Existed
The FBI then distributed guidance to other banks on how to identify potential “domestic extremists” – which basically meant anyone who shopped at Bass Pro Shops or sent Zelle payments with words like “MAGA” or “TRUMP.”
This is the kind of surveillance state garbage you’d expect in Communist China, not the United States of America.
“It’s big government colluding with big banks and big business to spy on everything Americans buy, every place they go, everything they do,” said Representative Jim Jordan, who’s been leading the charge to expose this corruption.
But here’s where the story gets really interesting.
The Alliance Defending Freedom – the same Christian law firm that successfully defended that Colorado baker who wouldn’t make a gay wedding cake – took up Happ’s case and brought it to Congress.
They understood something crucial that most people missed.
The Smart Strategy That Changed Everything
ADF didn’t just stumble onto this issue – they’ve been strategically targeting corporate America’s leftward drift, and banks were at the top of their hit list.
They used Happ’s story to push legislation in multiple states that would punish banks for discriminating against customers based on their political or religious beliefs.
Tennessee and Idaho have already passed these laws, with nine other states considering similar measures.
But that was just the warm-up act.
The real fireworks started when Trump decided he’d had enough of banks playing politics with American citizens’ money.
Trump’s Response Left Bank Executives Terrified
You want to know what really has every bank executive nervous right now?
Trump didn’t just complain about the problem – he took action that could cost these banks billions.
In August, the President signed an executive order that doesn’t ask nicely for banks to stop discriminating.
It threatens real consequences.
Trump’s banking regulators aren’t messing around.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has launched investigations into America’s nine biggest banks, demanding information about which customers they’ve cut off and why.
These investigations are scheduled to wrap up early next year, and bank executives are already preparing for steep fines and settlement deals.
“We’re not resisting this effort, and we don’t have any interest in people feeling like there is some political or religious lens on our lending,” one bank general counsel admitted to the Wall Street Journal. “But I do think, unfortunately, with this executive order, there’s going to be some witch trials.”
Witch trials? That’s rich coming from an industry that’s been conducting its own witch hunts against conservatives for years.
The Panic Mode Response
Here’s the part that tells you everything you need to know about how scared these banks really are.
Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Capital One are all now publicly claiming they “never close accounts for political reasons” – which is hilarious considering their track record.
Patricia Wexler from JPMorgan actually said with a straight face: “It’s wrong to close accounts based on politics, and our firmwide policies prohibit this.”
Sure they do. Just ask Trump about those account closures in 2021.
Bill Halldin from Bank of America chimed in: “We serve more than 70 million clients, and we welcome conservatives. We never close accounts for political reasons and don’t have a political litmus test.”
The banking industry’s biggest fear isn’t the fines or the investigations.
It’s that Trump might turn them into public utilities that can’t just arbitrarily cut off customers they don’t like.
What This Really Means for America
Look, these banks operate with federal backing and regulatory protection.
They use our financial infrastructure and deposit insurance.
If they want to play politics with people’s livelihoods, maybe it’s time they learned what real consequences look like.
The real victory here isn’t about one pastor getting his accounts back – though Steve Happ eventually found another bank for his charity work, and those orphanages in Uganda are still getting fed.
It’s about sending a message that Americans won’t tolerate financial discrimination based on their beliefs.
For the first time since Obama started weaponizing federal agencies against conservatives, banks are actually afraid of the consequences of their actions.
They can’t hide behind vague “risk assessments” anymore when they’re really just pushing a political agenda.
Trump just reminded the banking industry who they actually work for – and it’s not the Democrat Party.
¹ Alexander Saeedy and Dylan Tokar, “Banks Race to Prove They’re Not Biased Against Conservatives,” Wall Street Journal, September 17, 2025.
