Bank of America on the Ropes for Discrimination Against Conservatives
By The Blog Source
President Trump publicly criticized the CEO of Bank of America on Thursday for allegedly debanking conservatives. In response, the bank vehemently denies ever refusing service to Americans because of their political or religious convictions. Lawyers for free expression, however, argue that the corporation cannot merely disavow its track record of such actions.
Following his inauguration, Trump addressed the World Economic Forum over livestream on Thursday morning, fielding questions from CEOs of major corporations around the globe. While answering a question from Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan regarding the impact of executive orders on the economy, Trump admonished Moynihan to cease the practice of debanking individuals who hold opposing political views to Democrats.
President Trump spoke to the World Economic Forum via video on Thursday morning, just hours after being sworn in as president. He took questions from the CEOs of some of the biggest companies in the world. When Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan asked Trump about the impact of executive orders on the economy, Trump told Moynihan to stop cutting people off from banks who do not agree with Democrats.
After discussing his attempts to reduce inflation, Trump remarked, "I hope you start opening your bank to conservatives, because many conservatives complain that the banks are not allowing them to conduct business within the bank, and that includes a place called Bank of America." Conservative businesses are not accepted by them. And I am not sure if Biden or anything else prompted the regulators to require that, but what you are doing is wrong, so I hope you will open your banks to conservatives.
"We are not modifying our policy, since we never refuse to offer service based on religious or political convictions," Bank of America spokesman Bill Halldin told The Federalist on Friday. Halldin reaffirmed, "We welcome conservatives and service over 70 million clients," in an emailed statement. We must abide by a number of government laws and regulations, which occasionally necessitate ending client ties. We do not have a political litmus test, and we never close accounts for political reasons.
According to the 2024 Viewpoint Diversity Score Business Index by Alliance Defending Freedom, 69% of significant financial institutions have policies that permit them to refuse service to customers on the basis of their religious or political beliefs.
In 2021, Donald Trump was denied service by Signature Bank, Deutsche Bank, and a Florida bank. Melania Trump alleges in her memoir that her bank accounts were terminated and her son Barron was unable to establish an account after the family departed the White House. Donald Trump Jr. also claims that he has been debanked. Stripe, a payments processor, discontinued its business with the Trump campaign in 2021.
According to testimony given to Congress in 2023, Bank of America gave the FBI a list of all individuals who used a BoA payment card to make any purchases in Washington, D.C. between January 5 and January 7, 2021, without the need for a warrant or any other legal procedure. Tens of thousands of Americans were identified as possible domestic terrorists as a result, and many innocent Americans were subject to FBI inquiry just for being in close proximity to a few rioters at the U.S. Capitol.
Tennessee enacted legislation earlier this year that forbids large banks from treating clients differently because of their political or religious views. A similar bill has also been approved in Florida. According to Ross, banks should stop using ambiguous and imprecise "reputational risk" policies that let them discriminate against Americans based on their speech and ideas and establish a rule requiring them to provide a detailed explanation for each account closure.
*Visit http://SupportDiamondandSilk.com to Become a Monthly Supporter.
*Stay Connected to Diamond and Silk: Chatdit, FrankSpeech, VOCL, TruthSocial, Rumble, Diamond and Silk Media
