Stripe cut off Donald Trump's campaign website in 2021 because his supporters made Democrats uncomfortable.
Now Trump runs the country – and his FTC just reminded Stripe exactly who sets the rules.
The four companies that process most of America's digital payments just received a letter from Washington, and it wasn't a thank-you note.
PayPal and Stripe Have Been Debanking Conservatives for Years
FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson sent formal warning letters this week to the CEOs of Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, and Stripe – the four payment giants that collectively control how most Americans buy, sell, donate, and do business online.
The message was simple: stop cutting off law-abiding Americans for their political beliefs, or face federal enforcement action.
Ferguson didn't mince words. "It is inconsistent with American values to deny law-abiding individuals the ability to run their legitimate businesses and feed their families because they attracted the ire of rogue American officials, overzealous activists, or, more worryingly, foreign governments seeking to control public discourse."
That language didn't come from nowhere.
PayPal froze accounts belonging to conservative political commentators. Stripe terminated payment processing for Trump's own campaign website days after January 6, 2021. PayPal cut ties with Alex Jones' Infowars and the free-speech platform Gab back in 2019, hiding behind vague terms-of-service language that gave compliance teams essentially unlimited power to cancel anyone they didn't like.
For years, these companies ran a shadow banking system with the power to financially destroy anyone the left decided was dangerous – no appeals, no due process, no accountability.
Trump's Debanking Executive Order Put the FTC on a War Footing
Ferguson's letters didn't emerge out of thin air. They're the direct result of President Trump's August 7, 2025, executive order making it official U.S. policy that debanking Americans over their political affiliations, religious beliefs, or lawful business activities is unacceptable.
The FTC is now enforcing that order.
The legal hook is the FTC Act's Section 5 prohibition on unfair or deceptive practices. If Visa promises equal access in its terms of service and then cuts someone off for voting Republican, that's not a business decision – that's fraud.
The letters to Visa and Mastercard went even further – holding the card networks responsible not just for their own behavior but for every bank on their payment networks. "Equally concerning is the conduct of payments providers and payment networks that turn a blind eye when their financial institution members debank consumers for these reasons," Ferguson wrote.
That's a significant expansion of liability.
Visa already faces a separate Justice Department antitrust case over its debit card practices. Ferguson's letter adds another federal agency bearing down on the company.
Of the four companies, only Stripe pushed back. "At Stripe, we do not restrict access to our services based on political viewpoints or affiliation," a spokesperson said. Visa and Mastercard didn't respond. PayPal declined to comment.
The FTC Warning Is Part of a Coordinated Federal Crackdown on Political Debanking
Ferguson's letters are the latest move in a coordinated takedown of the entire apparatus Democrats built to bankrupt conservatives.
Trump sued JPMorgan Chase and CEO Jamie Dimon for $5 billion in January after the bank admitted in court filings it had shut down more than 50 of his accounts in February 2021 – no hearing, no appeal, no explanation beyond a letter telling the former president to "find a more suitable institution with which to conduct business."
The OCC exposed major banks for illegally blacklisting firearms dealers, coal companies, and oil producers – industries Democrats wanted starved of capital until they died.
The Federal Reserve stripped "reputational risk" from bank supervision – killing the regulatory cover that let banks claim they were forced to cancel conservatives when they were choosing to do it.
Now the FTC is closing the last exit.
You can't run a business, take donations, pay employees, or operate online without payment processing.
When PayPal and Stripe decided conservatives were too dangerous to serve, they weren't making a business decision. They were trying to drive an entire political movement out of public life by cutting off its financial oxygen.
Trump's people are treating it as exactly what it was: a coordinated attack on American freedom by corporate leftists who thought they were untouchable.
They're finding out they were wrong.
Sources:
- Federal Trade Commission, "FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson Issues Warning Letters to CEOs of PayPal, Stripe, Visa and Mastercard About Debanking American Consumers," FTC.gov, March 26, 2026.
- Catherine Leffert, "FTC warns payment giants against political debanking," American Banker, March 26, 2026.
- Gabrielle Saulsbery, "Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Stripe warned of debanking consequences," Banking Dive, March 26, 2026.
- "Trump takes JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon to court in $5B debanking lawsuit," Fox Business, January 22, 2026.
- "JPMorgan admits closing accounts tied to Trump weeks after Jan. 6, 2021," Fox Business, February 22, 2026.
- "JPMorgan, BofA flag Trump debanking order in SEC filings," Banking Dive, November 5, 2025.
