By Donald Jeffries
President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order that threatens to fine banks that discriminate for political reasons. The order will request banking regulators to determine if banking institutions have violated the Equal Opportunity Act, antitrust laws, or other laws that protect consumers.
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The executive order seems to have been motivated by Bank of America allegedly shutting down the accounts of a Christian group located in Uganda. The bank claimed the accounts were closed because it is against their policy to serve small businesses that operate outside this country. The draft of the executive order also criticizes the role played by certain banks in relation to the Jan. 6, 2021 Stop the Steal rally in Washington, D.C.
With the advent of the second Trump administration, some banks have attempted to stop action by the federal government by meeting with Republican attorneys general and clarifying their policies to clearly emphasize that they don’t discriminate on the basis of political philosophy.
A Bank of America spokesman declared that the bank actually welcomed the Trump administration’s efforts to provide clarity on the issue. “We’ve provided detailed proposals and will continue to work with the administration and Congress to improve the regulatory framework,” he said.
Banks have insisted that their decisions are impacted by legal, regulatory, and financial risks, including those which are associated with anti-money laundering laws. They also blame regulatory pressure for their consistent avoidance of crypto currency. The draft of the order instructs regulators to drop any policies that were connected to dropping specific customers, and directs the Small Business Association to review bank practices that guarantee loans.
Since Trump reentered the Oval Office, banking regulators have promised to stop assessing banks for the supposed “reputational risk” posed by certain customers. The order will also direct that regulators refer potential violations to the U.S. attorney general in certain instances. The Justice Department promised in April to launch a task force in Virginia to examine the allegations of banks refusing customers access to credit or other services based on what it defined as “impermissible factors.”
For years, conservatives have accused banks of denying services and canceling accounts of prominent right-wing infuencers such as MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, right-wing commentator Laura Loomer and InfoWars founder Alex Jones. Cryptocurrency companies have charged that they were shut out of banking services under the Biden administration. In late 2022, JP Morgan terminated its relationship with controversial rapper Kanye West, now known simply as Ye. Outraged conservative podcaster Candace Owens tweeted:
Earlier today I learned that Kanye was officially kicked out of JP Morgan Chase bank. I was told there was no official reason given, but they sent this letter as well to confirm that he has until late November to find another place for his empire to bank.
Owens would add:
We have reached extremely frightening times in this country. Who or what has landed us in these times is an ongoing discussion which I would like to open up.
West shared his comments about the situation with entertainment website “Page Six,” declaring:
Hey, if you call somebody out for bad business, that means you’re being anti-Semitic. I feel happy to have crossed the line of that idea so we can speak openly about things like getting canceled by a bank.
Trump himself said during a recent CNBC interview, “I had hundreds of millions. I had many, many accounts loaded up with cash.” But JPMorgan Chase, as they’d done with West, abruptly shut down his accounts after decades of doing business. Trump believes that this was part of a broader political agenda to “cancel” conservatives. “The banks discriminated against me very badly,” Trump said, and suggested that “Banks are not afraid of anything but a regulator.”
PayPal has done the same thing, canceling business with alternative voices like The Barnes Review history magazine. In October, 2022, PayPal announced that it was implementing an Orwellian policy whereby users who risk others’ “well being” or spread “misinformation” will be fined $2,500. The new policy prohibits “the promotion of hate, violence, racial or other forms of intolerance that is discriminatory.” PayPal didn’t attempt to define these terms, which, like “hate speech,” are not quantifiable. Emotion and identity politics are the arbiters.
Aaron Terr, a senior program officer at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, alleged that the new policy will have a “chilling effect on users’ speech.” Terr noted:
Under existing law, PayPal has the ability as a private company to implement this type of viewpoint-discriminatory policy. As is often the case with ill-defined and viewpoint-discriminatory speech codes, those with unpopular or minority viewpoints will likely bear the brunt of these restrictions.
Combined with the Trump adminstration’s efforts (supported by most conservatives) to penalize or even prosecute those accused of “anti-Semitism,” we are reminded of just how unpopular free speech is with everyone.
Donald Jeffries is a highly respected author and researcher whose work on the JFK, RFK and MLK assassinations and other high crimes of the Deep State has been read by millions of people across the world. Jeffries is also the author of three books currently being sold by AFP Bookstore.
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