An 18-year-old man is accused of fatally shooting two U.S. Bank employees in Berea, Kentucky, before rifling through the teller drawers for cash and speeding off in his car.
Brailen Weaver of Covington, Kentucky, entered the bank at around 2:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, wearing a black mask and gloves, according to the <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/1033646042/BrailenWeaverAffidavit-Redacted?secret_password=6Pd48N8xJJIAk7EFw5t7#download&amp;from_embed">arrest affidavit</a>. Weaver shot and killed a male U.S. Bank employee right after walking into the branch and then gunned down a female teller before he searched through multiple drawers, the affidavit states.
The suspect fled the bank in a silver BMW sedan, which authorities tracked down after finding the same car listed for sale on Facebook by Weaver. Investigators then reviewed Weaver&#8217;s social media and found photos of him that matched the description of the suspect seen on the bank&#8217;s security cameras.
Weaver also posted a meme on Instagram just hours after he allegedly robbed the bank and killed two employees, according to the FBI. The meme depicts an alien holding a stash of $100 bills with the caption, &#8220;I pledge allegiance to da bag.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_1088381" style="width: 483px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1088381" class="wp-image-1088381 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Untitled-design-2026-05-01T152737.527-473x576.jpg" alt="" width="473" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Untitled-design-2026-05-01T152737.527-473x576.jpg 473w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Untitled-design-2026-05-01T152737.527-246x300.jpg 246w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Untitled-design-2026-05-01T152737.527.jpg 657w" sizes=" (max-width: 473px) 100vw, 473px" />FBI</div>
On Thursday evening, authorities tracked Weaver to Somerset, Kentucky, which is about 40 miles southwest of Berea. A short time later, the FBI spotted Weaver&#8217;s vehicle on Interstate 75, and federal, state, and local law enforcement pursued the suspect in a high-speed chase.
The affidavit states that Weaver reached speeds of nearly 130 mph and dodged spike strips laid out in the road by law enforcement. The suspect eventually crashed as he was driving toward downtown Lexington, but escaped on foot. Authorities found a firearm in the suspect&#8217;s abandoned BMW. Weaver was finally arrested in downtown Lexington and faces federal charges of armed bank robbery and using/discharging a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.
&#8220;The perpetrator&#8217;s heinous actions were not only indefensible but cowardly,&#8221; <a href="https://www.wlwt.com/article/2-employees-killed-bank-robbery-berea-kentucky-suspect/71180865">said</a> Olivia Olson, the special agent in charge at the FBI&#8217;s Louisville field office. &#8220;While there is no longer imminent danger, we understand that the tragedy is far from over for the community. The only solace that we can offer is that this individual who valued a stolen dollar more than two human lives will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.&#8221;
The killings appear to be the first deadly shooting in a bank robbery in the United States since 2021, when a man <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndin/pr/gary-man-sentenced-2-consecutive-terms-life-prison">fatally shot</a> a security guard at a bank in Gary, Indiana, during an attempted robbery. In 2019, a 21-year-old man <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/former-prison-guard-trainee-is-sentenced-to-death-for-killing-5-women-at-a-florida-bank/">executed</a> five women at a SunTrust bank in Sebring, Florida. In that shooting, there was no indication that the gunman intended to rob the bank.
Bank robberies in the United States are becoming increasingly uncommon as banks improve security and hold less cash at any given time, reflecting society&#8217;s shift to digital payments.

Bank robbery

FBI Reveals Robber Posted Chilling Instagram Meme After Killing Two Bank Employees

Banks

Crime

Kentucky

Robbery

Shooting

NEW YORK (Reuters) &#8211; Bank of America agreed to pay $72.5 million to settle a civil lawsuit brought by women who accused the bank of facilitating their sexual abuse by Jeffrey Epstein, court records showed on Friday.
Lawyers for the bank and the women had told Manhattan-based U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff this month they had reached a &#8220;settlement in principle,&#8221; but terms of the deal were not disclosed at the time.
&#8220;While we stand by our prior statements made in the filings in this case, including that Bank of America did not facilitate sex trafficking crimes, this resolution allows us to put this matter behind us and provides further closure for the plaintiffs,&#8221; a spokesperson for Bank of America said in a statement.
In a joint court filing, David Boies and Bradley Edwards, attorneys for the plaintiffs, said the settlement represented the best option for their clients &#8220;given that many Class Members suffered harm many years ago and are in need of financial relief now.&#8221;
The plaintiffs&#8217; lawyers may seek up to 30% of the settlement, or about $21.8 million, for legal fees, according to court records.
The settlement requires Rakoff&#8217;s approval. The judge scheduled a court hearing for Thursday to consider approving the deal.
The proposed class action, filed in October by a woman using the pseudonym Jane Doe, accused the second-largest U.S. bank of ignoring suspicious financial transactions related to Epstein despite a &#8220;plethora&#8221; of information about his crimes because it valued profit over protecting victims.
Bank of America has said Doe alleged merely that it provided routine services to people who at the time had no known links to Epstein, and that any suggestion that it was more deeply involved was &#8220;threadbare and meritless.&#8221;
Rakoff ruled in January that Bank of America must face Doe&#8217;s claims that it knowingly benefited from Epstein&#8217;s sex trafficking and obstructed enforcement of the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act. Among the transactions Doe flagged were payments to Epstein by Apollo Global Management&#8217;s billionaire co-founder, Leon Black.
Black stepped down as Apollo&#8217;s chief executive in 2021 after a review by an outside law firm found he had paid Epstein $158 million for tax and estate planning.
Black has denied wrongdoing and said he was unaware of Epstein&#8217;s criminal conduct.
Doe&#8217;s lawyers have also sued other alleged enablers of Epstein&#8217;s sex trafficking, and in 2023 reached settlements of $290 million with JPMorgan Chase and $75 million with Deutsche Bank on behalf of his accusers.
The lawyers are also appealing Rakoff&#8217;s dismissal in January of a similar lawsuit they brought against Bank of New York Mellon.
Epstein died in a Manhattan jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide by New York City&#8217;s medical examiner.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Rod Nickel)

Bank of America/Epstein

Another Major Bank Agrees To Dish Out Over $70M To Settle Epstein Lawsuit

Bank of America

Jeffrey Epstein

Fraudsters are robbing America blind. The federal government <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-24-105833">estimates</a> fraud costs a family of four roughly $4,000 each year.
Fraud is the inevitable byproduct of a bloated bureaucracy that spends <a href="https://www.bea.gov/data/government/receipts-and-expenditures">$11 trillion annually</a> at the federal, state, and local levels. To conduct an audit, we would need an army of indefatigable accountants. In the past, we couldn’t raise such an army, but now we can. We simply need competent leadership in Congress to deploy it.
This system could have saved <a href="https://apnews.com/article/minnesota-fraud-feeding-our-future-medicaid-9911799c0d0149a64a042abed095be57">billions</a> in Minnesota alone. Instead of sending millions in taxpayer dollars to the <a href="https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/dr-oz-on-medicaid-fraud-fact-finding-mission-in-minnesota-2b-could-be-at-stake/">400 supposed</a> healthcare providers huddled in an industrial building in St. Paul, Minnesota, our government could have sent an FBI team. They would have stopped payments to “<a href="https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/dozens-charged-in-250-million-covid-fraud-scheme-092122">Feeding Our Future</a>,” where fraudsters faked child rosters, randomly assigned ages, and reported meal volumes wildly inconsistent with site capacity — the kind of fraud that is easy for an AI to catch.
The technical solution is to use AI to spot and block fraudulent government payments, such as those to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/minneapolis-quality-learing-center-is-officially-closed-state-records-show">fake daycares</a> in Minnesota. Your bank already does it. If you live in Minneapolis and your card is used in Florida, your bank will deny the transaction and call you within minutes. By contrast, the government’s optional payment screening service has been branded <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/M-25-32-Preventing-Improper-Payments-and-Protecting-Privacy-Through-Do-Not-Pay.pdf">a failure</a>.
Modern AI tools can detect fraud patterns that fool humans, such as multiple nonprofits with the same address, beneficiaries, board members, and employees. These tools automatically flag anomalies like spikes in billing and implausible service delivery. When something is suspicious, these tools can stop the payment for further investigation by a human team.
Congress should require all agencies to run any payment over $10,000 through a fraud detection system and change the law to allow the government to pause suspicious payments. AI can adjudicate most cases quickly. Narrow exceptions should be made for cases where immediate payments are critical to national security. The system can exist within the Treasury, Government Accountability Office, or even report directly to Congress. Regardless of where it lives, we need an elite team of data scientists, engineers, and investigators who oversee our all-important tax dollars competently and ethically.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) and state Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) testify on alleged misuse of federal funds in Minnesota at <a href="https://twitter.com/GOPoversight?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@GOPoversight</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/OversightDems?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@OversightDems</a> – LIVE on C-SPAN3 <a href="https://t.co/LkMJ0ZVExm">https://t.co/LkMJ0ZVExm</a>
— CSPAN (@cspan) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/2029197002651701402?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 4, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Source: @cspan/X.com
But tech is not enough. We need the legal tools to stop fraudulent payments immediately. Would you keep paying the bill on a stolen credit card for years? That’s what the government does. When agencies suspect fraud, they often continue paying fraudsters until a court declares the “vendor” to be violating their contract. “Feeding Our Future” received $250 million of taxpayer money for years after the first <a href="https://www.governing.com/management-and-administration/minnesotas-inadequate-oversight-led-to-250m-meal-program-fraud?utm_source=chatgpt.com">allegations</a> of fraud. When Minnesota’s Department of Education slowed the payments on its suspicions, “Feeding Our Future” sued; the judge <a href="https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/judge-rebukes-walz-assertion-that-he-ordered-mde-to-resume-payments-to-feeding-our-future/?utm_source=chatgpt.com">questioned</a> whether the agency had followed the required administrative procedures, and payments to fraudsters resumed. This illustrates a general point — fraudsters know that even credible red flags rarely trigger an immediate stop-pay and criminal prosecution, because agencies lack <a href="https://www.governing.com/management-and-administration/minnesotas-inadequate-oversight-led-to-250m-meal-program-fraud?utm_source=chatgpt.com">investigatory tools</a> and fear losing in court.
Congress, however, lacks technical competence and leadership. While half of all senators are <a href="https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R48535">lawyers</a> by training, there is only <a href="https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R48535">one senator</a> with an engineering degree. The Senate is not representative of America’s immense economic growth, driven in large part by technologists. It’s time for us to harness that technology to make the government serve us better.
Our prosperity and freedom are at stake. Polarization and growing mistrust in our institutions, coupled with enormous peacetime deficits, are a combustible mix. We can quell it with technology and competent leadership. Stamping out large-scale fraud could cut our deficit by as much as a quarter. Addressing waste as well could eliminate our deficit entirely. Only when families feel the benefits of our prosperity in their own budgets — through lower taxes, cheaper childcare, and healthcare — will the political pressure cool and give us space to confront our most serious challenges as a nation.
Two hundred and fifty years ago, Americans laid the foundation of the most successful democratic government in the world. Our government grew with our prosperity — eventually making full oversight impossible by human effort alone. Today, we have the technology to make our government the most upright and efficient in the world. We need leaders who are capable and willing to use it to protect our taxes, our freedoms, and our future. 

* * *
Mark York is a Harvard-trained computer scientist and Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Minnesota. 

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Minnesota Gov. Walz And AG Ellison Testify At Hearing On Social Services Fraud

America Is Bleeding Billions To Fraud — How AI Could Shut It Down

Artificial Intelligence

Congress

Federal Government

Fraud

Minneapolis

Minnesota

Somalis

Technology

Tim Walz

The Trump administration notched a victory when a Kentucky federal judge temporarily blocked the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from implementing a rule critics say puts Americans&#8217; financial data at risk.
The 1033 Rule, proposed under President Joe Biden&#8217;s CFPB Director Rohit Chopra, <a href="https://www.consumerfinance.gov/personal-financial-data-rights/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">requires</a> banks to &#8220;make available to consumers, upon request, transaction data and other information concerning a consumer financial product or service that the consumer obtained from the covered entity.&#8221;
Forcht Bank, the Kentucky Bankers Association, and the Bank Policy Institute sued to block the rule, saying it exceeded the CFPB’s authority and would force the institutions to hand over large amounts of sensitive data, creating security and liability risks. Judge Danny C. Reeves of the United States District Court for Kentucky concluded the rule could cause more harm than good.
&#8220;The public could arguably lose some benefit from the Rule not being enforced at the set compliance deadlines,&#8221; said the judge. &#8220;However, the plaintiffs also contend that enforcement of the current Rule puts consumers at risk due to security risk as to their banking information.&#8221;
The <a href="https://bpi.com/joint-statement-on-courts-decision-to-stay-section-1033-compliance-deadline/">Bank Policy Institute</a> issued a statement saying the organization was grateful for the court&#8217;s decision.
&#8220;This is a common-sense procedural step,&#8221; said the Bank Policy Institute. It &#8220;doesn’t interfere with the rulemaking process but ensures banks won’t be forced to invest time and resources preparing for a rule that is currently being rewritten.”
&#8220;This preliminary injunction marks a pivotal moment for those who value consumer privacy and limited-government issues,&#8221; a source familiar with the matter told The Daily Wire. &#8220;The Trump administration now has a unique opportunity to advance a new 1033 rule that gets the government out of the way and unleashes innovation.”
Under Vought&#8217;s leadership, the CFPB issued <a href="https://www.consumerfinance.gov/personal-financial-data-rights/">an advance notice of proposed rulemaking,</a> inviting the public to give input to form the basis of the final rule. Once input has been provided, the CFPB will share a draft of the rule.
The CFPB is now analyzing public comments and data around four key issues related to the implementation of the 1033 rule: who should be allowed to access financial data on a customer&#8217;s behalf, whether companies should be allowed to charge data sharing fees, how big are the security risks of sharing financial data, and how big are the privacy risks.
The Bank Policy Institute writes that the current rule &#8220;unlawfully mandated banks to share sensitive consumer data with third-party fintechs and aggregators; it required no oversight of third parties using bank customer data,&#8221; among other issues.
Earlier this year, Chopra was notified that he had been <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-fires-rohit-chopra-director-of-the-consumer-financial-protection-bureau/">fired by the president</a> via an email from the White House. President Trump appointed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to lead the agency in interim before handing the reins over to Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought.
Rethinking the CFPB has been a priority of the Trump administration&#8217;s since the start of his term. In February, the White House issued a statement stating that the agency &#8220;has long functioned as another woke, weaponized arm of the bureaucracy that leverages its power against certain industries and individuals disfavored by so-called elites.&#8221;
The Trump administration accused the CFPB of &#8220;supporting radical advocacy groups, threatening banks for refusing to lend to illegal immigrants, targeting a Chicago small business after it complained about the city&#8217;s rampant crime, and mining American citizens&#8217; personal financial information.&#8221;
On The Charlie Kirk Show, Vought discussed the importance of putting a stop to the agency&#8217;s ability to weaponize &#8220;the tools of financial laws against small mom and pop lenders and other small financial institutions.&#8221;

Donald Trump

The Trump Administration Just Took A Huge Step Toward Reforming The CFPB

Economy

Elizabeth Warren

Money

Politics

Trump Administration

A left-wing organization is pumping money into an effort to kill legislation that would prevent banks from denying loans to farmers based on political considerations. The organization, The Daily Wire has learned, has ties to a deeper network of far-left groups, including one that appears to be flush with foreign money.
Unlocking America’s Future is <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/?active_status=all&amp;ad_type=all&amp;country=US&amp;is_targeted_country=false&amp;media_type=all&amp;search_type=page&amp;view_all_page_id=163734473485371">running ads</a> on Facebook targeting North Carolina and opposing legislation that would <a href="https://www.carolinajournal.com/house-agriculture-committee-approves-anti-esg-farmers-protection-act/">prevent</a> banks from denying loans to farmers based on controversial environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics. The group has spent just shy of $30,000 on Facebook ads from early July to early August.
The legislation, its Republican sponsors say, would prevent farmers from being compelled to go along with a political agenda and ensure that lending remains “based upon whether they have good credit or not but not based upon their ESG score.”
But Unlocking America’s future is just a trade name used by an organization set up by established left-wing organizations to bolster Biden in the 2020 election.
Unlocking America’s Future, <a href="https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_dc/EXTUID_4337124">according</a> to a non-profit database and the Washington, D.C., corporate registry, is a trade name used by Climate Power. This left-wing organization was created in the lead-up to the 2020 election as a <a href="https://www.eenews.net/articles/this-climate-group-has-80m-to-help-biden/">joint project</a> of the Sierra Club, the American Progress Action Fund, and the League of Conservation Voters. The group came on the scene with $80 million ready to deploy in an effort to boost then-candidate Joe Biden.
Under the name “Unlocking America’s Future,” the organization has launched an ad campaign opposing the Farmers Protection Act, targeting Raleigh and other areas with paid ads calling on several state representatives and Governor Josh Stein to reject the proposal.
“Billionaires want to force banks to ignore financial risks, putting North Carolina’s economic future at risk,” read the paid Facebook ads, which began in late May and have continued into August. “Stand up for North Carolina’s economic future by focusing on responsible investing, lowering costs, and creating jobs.”
While the ads grandstand against “billionaires” attempting to exert influence on North Carolina’s politics, the organization has ties to a network of left-wing activist groups tied to a Swiss billionaire.
Climate Power is a project of the Fund for a Better Future, which has been <a href="https://apnews.com/article/dark-money-democrats-wyss-politics-elections-601d40cd01569190559d545418afe396">scrutinized</a> as a vehicle that’s allowed foreign money to flood into American politics through issue-advocacy groups, allowing foreigners to exert influence on America’s politics despite a prohibition on foreign donors directly bankrolling candidates for public office.
Swiss billionaire and prominent left-wing donor Hansjörg Wyss was a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/dark-money-democrats-wyss-politics-elections-601d40cd01569190559d545418afe396">major backer</a> of the Fund for a Better Future, the Associated Press reported as Climate Power sought to boost Biden’s legislative agenda and support Democratic congressional candidates.
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Climate Power has also pushed the diversity, equity, and inclusion agenda, at least internally, according to organization documentation. The organization’s 2023 registration form reveals that the group employed racially discriminatory practices when selecting board members.
“The makeup of the board shall be reflective of the diversity of the progress movement and the corporation staff,” the document reads. “The board should not be less than approximately 40% Board members who identify as Black, Indigenous, or People of Color and 51% of Board members who identify as women.”
“The corporation shall use best efforts to ensure that the diversity of the Board is no lesser than the diversity of staff.” it goes on to add.
Climate Power did not respond to a request for comment.

Hansjorg Wyss

Leftist Network With Foreign Ties Tries To Kill Bill Protecting Farmers From ESG Agenda

Banking

Climate Change

Dark Money

Donors

Environmentalism

North Carolina

As we pass the halfway point of the 2020s, it’s safe to say we’ve all had front row seats to what many people have described as the vibe shift. You don’t really have to pay attention to business to understand that something is changing in corporate America. You don’t have to be looking at stocks every day to realize that the balance of power is shifting away from the heights of wokeness we saw at the beginning of the 2020s. President Trump’s latest executive <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/08/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-guarantees-fair-banking-for-all-americans/">order</a>, prohibiting politicized debanking, is creating massive positive waves for conservatives concerned about losing access to their finances — and investors who don’t want the banks they invest in playing politics. This comes on the heels of other executive orders targeted at biased AI <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/07/preventing-woke-ai-in-the-federal-government/">programs</a> and divisive, discriminatory <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-and-wasteful-government-dei-programs-and-preferencing/">DEI policies</a>.
These big steps are the results of top-down exercises in executive power. And a frequent criticism I hear, as someone whose job it is to pay attention to business, is that Trump’s executive orders will just create a facade of non-wokeness, under which companies will resume their previous biased policies. As it happens, answering that criticism is a major part of my work in the world of corporate engagement. Because the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-year-the-dei-tide-turned?author=Isaac+Willour&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=10&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=The+Year+The+DEI+Tide+Turned">pushback</a> against ESG, DEI, &amp; corporate wokeness isn’t just coming from the White House. It’s coming from ordinary investors all across this country who want the businesses they invest in focusing on… well, business.
Let’s take debanking as an example. Months before Trump’s debanking executive order came down, banks like <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/major-win-jpmorgan-chase-ends-political-debanking?author=Isaac+Willour&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=3&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Major+Win%3A+JPMorgan+Chase+Ends+Political+Debanking">JPMorgan Chase</a> &amp; <a href="https://x.com/IsaacWillour/status/1929918865842012351">Citigroup</a> adopted explicit guarantees: no more debanking based on clients’ political beliefs or affiliations. These banks weren’t just anticipating the regulatory and political shift coming from Washington — they were hearing from shareholders. Why? Because when businesses play politics, they don’t just incur the wrath of Republican politicians. These gambles with brand value and deviations from the core business model hurt ordinary Americans, who rightly expect Citigroup to create value for their kids’ college fund instead of opining on gun control through their lending policies.
When JPMorgan Chase debanked Ambassador Sam Brownback, investors took notice. And the investors I work with aren’t the type to sit back and take it. Shareholders like <a href="https://www.wsj.com/finance/my-bid-to-make-jpmorgan-less-woke-progressive-discrimination-conservatives-christians-shareholders-sec-banking-finances-583c7999?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=ASWzDAhg8WubEGKB7cvLlardDDcKkGeJqpUicqcbM1xoLBHMGeBHqpP1w-ZC4shMtQk%3D&amp;gaa_ts=68957d1d&amp;gaa_sig=hpzyOTrRxsQ-AO0cLmG4VpK0q2-FpzuLTXkXA0T73nZM0Iu73898-9shhfsDz68MpAEbFs9tDXU_DvlMbfl-Fw%3D%3D">David Bahnsen</a> and other ordinary <a href="https://investor.bankofamerica.com/regulatory-and-other-filings/all-sec-filings/content/0001193125-24-064529/d529855ddef14a1.pdf">investors</a> were attending annual meetings and putting pressure on these companies from the inside for years, not to be right-wing or give special privileges to conservatives, but to play it neutral: serve everyone, because everyone needs banks. And because banks have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders, there have been real arguments occurring between investors and company reps for years on the debanking issue. Add to this pressure from red state fiduciaries cutting ties with activist banks (turns out, pro-energy states don’t take kindly to banks demonizing the energy industry), and the supercharging effect of an executive order, and you start to see how corporate America is slowly shifting back towards normalcy. And that’s just the debanking issue.
If you had to sum up why the backlash to corporate wokeness is working in one sentence, try this one: the pro-sanity business ecosystem has become too big to ignore, and too committed to fail. Think about it as a coalition. One part is ordinary investors and institutions who invest for return — these aren’t professional activists, a dynamic that companies are only recently having to get used to. Another part is financial professionals, another part are legal advocates like Alliance Defending Freedom, working to make sure companies can’t just ignore their own shareholders (because they try — often). Another part is friendly journalists and X personalities like Robby Starbuck, putting millions of eyes on this issue. Another part is the countless advocacy groups providing the research &amp; data that fuel our ability to talk to these companies, such as Consumers’ Research and the 1792 Exchange. Effective corporate engagement happens when all these forces align on a single aim: getting companies out of politics &amp; back to business. 
And we’re seeing real results on a whole host of issues. Beyond the debanking issue, we’re seeing companies <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jan/08/us-banks-quit-net-zero-alliance-before-trump-inauguration">ditch</a> anti-energy commitments in droves (turns out, net zero becomes a fantasy the minute you look at the energy demands of the real world.) We’re seeing companies commit to treating their religious employees with the same respect &amp; privileges afforded to non-religious ones, including through workplace affinity groups and inclusion in charity matching programs. We’re seeing companies like <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/media/pepsico-puts-out-viewpoint-neutral-media-buying-content-policy-website">PepsiCo</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ibm-rolls-back-dei-commits-to-political-neutrality?author=Isaac+Willour&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=2&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=IBM+Rolls+Back+DEI%2C+Commits+To+Political+Neutrality">IBM</a> commit to not using their ad policies to discriminate against conservative news outlets like the Daily Wire. And we have good reason to believe that, as corporate engagement increases, more wins are coming.
So, what about that façade of nonwokeness? Aren’t companies just going to lie? As it happens, vigilance from actual investors is a fantastic way to safeguard against that. People generally have the biggest incentive to do something when it hurts to not do it. So, who has the biggest incentive to make sure businesses aren’t playing politics? The people who own the business: shareholders. The investors we represent have a clear incentive to be in the details — because the problem of corporate wokeness isn’t just a PR or branding issue. It’s an issue that affects the bottom line Americans depend on.
The vibe shift we’re seeing goes far beyond Washington, even though Washington matters. What’s happening in America, in real time, is conservative investors and institutions waking up and realizing that they’ve been leaving their financial influence on the table. And we truly have no blueprint for how much winning is possible when that influence is brought to bear. So, from Washington, to the halls of conservative institutions, to the ordinary mom-and-pop investors sitting at their kitchen table in West Texas — here’s to winning. The best is yet to come.
* * *
Isaac Willour is an award-winning journalist focusing on race, culture, and American conservatism, as well as a corporate relations analyst at Bowyer Research. His work has been featured at outlets including USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times Opinion, C-SPAN, and The Daily Wire. He is a member of the Young Voices contributor program and can be found on X <a href="https://twitter.com/IsaacWillour" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@IsaacWillour</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Flag and Wall street sign

Why The Pro-Sanity Coalition Is Winning Again In Corporate America

Business

Corporations

debanking

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

JP Morgan

Stock Market

Wall Street

Woke Culture

Speaking to bankers in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that President Donald Trump is focusing his policy &#8220;on Main Street,&#8221; adding that small businesses have been overlooked while &#8220;Wall Street has grown wealthier than ever before.&#8221;
Bessent made the <a href="https://www.c-span.org/program/public-affairs-event/treasury-secretary-bessent-remarks-at-bankers-association-summit/658349" target="_blank" rel="noopener">remarks</a> at the American Bankers Association Summit, discussing Trump&#8217;s economic policy and tariffs as global markets respond to the president&#8217;s tariff rollout. Following Trump&#8217;s &#8220;Liberation Day&#8221; tariffs announcement last Wednesday, U.S. stocks immediately dipped and have yet to recover as anxiety persists on Wall Street.
The treasury secretary began his speech by emphasizing the importance of Main Street over Wall Street, arguing that Trump &#8220;understands that national strength comes from the ground up, not from the top down, and this concept applies to good government just as it does to banking and capital coordination.&#8221;
&#8220;For too long, financial policy has served large financial institutions at the expense of smaller ones. No more,&#8221; Bessent said. &#8220;This administration aims to give all banks the chance to succeed, whether it&#8217;s JP Morgan or your local mortgage and loan.&#8221;
&#8220;For the last four decades, basically since I began my career in Wall Street, Wall Street has grown wealthier than ever before, and it can continue to grow and do well,&#8221; he added. &#8220;But for the next four years, the Trump agenda is focused on Main Street. It&#8217;s Main Street&#8217;s turn to hire workers. It&#8217;s Main Street&#8217;s turn to drive investment. And it&#8217;s Main Street&#8217;s turn to restore the American dream.&#8221;
In a Q&amp;A session following his speech, Bessent addressed Trump&#8217;s tariffs and their effect on the stock market, acknowledging that &#8220;there is a little uncertainty,&#8221; but he added that corporate executives he&#8217;s talked to say &#8220;the economy is very solid.&#8221;
&#8220;We are in pretty good shape,&#8221; Bessent said.
As trade deals remain up in the air and China doubles down on retaliating with tariffs on American goods, Bessent said that he believes the Trump administration &#8220;can probably&#8221; strike deals with its allies around the world, &#8220;and then we can approach China as a group.&#8221;
&#8220;We&#8217;ve been overwhelmed with the response to come to D.C. and negotiate,&#8221; Bessent continued, adding, &#8220;I think we have about 70 negotiations lined up. I&#8217;m not planning on going anywhere for Easter.&#8221;

Scott Bessent

Scott Bessent Says Trump Is Prioritizing Main Street Over Wall Street In Speech To Bankers

Tariffs

Working in corporate engagement, I often hear questions about why the ‘long game’ matters in changing woke company policies. If executive orders can instantly push companies away from DEI or ESG initiatives, why take other pathways? The answer is clear: lasting change takes time. JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s largest bank, just proved this with a major policy shift — one that speaks louder than any theory ever could.
In 2022, JPMorgan Chase <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/03/10/opinion/i-was-debanked-by-jpmorgan-chase-but-fought-back-and-won/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">debanked</a> former U.S. Senator and Ambassador Sam Brownback, after Brownback opened an account for the newly-formed National Committee for Religious Freedom. The son of a Kansas farmer, Brownback refused to back down. When Brownback asked the bank for its rationale in shuttering his account, he was met with conflicting (and incorrect) explanations as to why.
Brownback’s debanking experience was the start of a major wave of scrutiny over exactly what conditions a bank will close a customer’s account. Victims range from nonprofit organizations like Indigenous Advance, an organization serving Ugandan widows &amp; orphans debanked by Bank of America in 2023, to Melania &amp; Barron Trump, who Melania <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/2025-01-24-Letter.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">described</a> as having been debanked in her memoir, prompting further inquiry from the House Committee on Oversight.
Yet JPMorgan consistently ranked as one of the major bad actors in the debanking saga, closing not only Brownback’s account (and actually <a href="https://www.ag.ky.gov/Press%20Release%20Attachments/23.5.2%20Letter%20to%20Chase.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">asked</a> for his org’s donor list for restoring service) but several other conservative nonprofits. The biggest bank in America was quickly racking up hits on its record of political neutrality and customer equality.
This trend might have gone unaddressed had the Right simply let the issue lie. Luckily, some of the most influential names in both the conservative legal, financial, and government worlds stepped up to the plate. Pressure for increased transparency and commitments to ditch any policies that could lead to a client being debanked for political reasons has come from all directions, from legal giants like <a href="https://adfmedia.org/press-release/19-states-chase-stop-misleading-customers-commit-equality-treatment/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Alliance Defending Freedom</a> to <a href="https://www.viewpointdiversityscore.org/news/statement-on-debanking-and-free-speech" target="_blank" rel="noopener">notable financial professionals</a> to <a href="https://www.ag.ky.gov/Press%20Release%20Attachments/23.5.2%20Letter%20to%20Chase.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">state financial officers and attorneys general</a>. As that public pressure mounted, shareholder pressure has been growing from the inside for the past three years, spurred on by organizations like the firm I work for, Bowyer Research, with Chase investors like financial advisor David Bahnsen spending literal years <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/bahnsen-takes-the-fight-today-to-jpmorgan-chase/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">urging</a> the company to clarify its approach to debanking — and fix its spotty track record on political neutrality.
And Chase listened.
In 2023, JPMorgan made the decision to axe its “social risk” policy from its payment processing arm, no longer allowing vague terms like “intolerance” and “hate” to determine whether a customer was fit to continue doing business at Chase. But the biggest win so far came several days ago, when Chase agreed to a policy change explicitly protecting customers and employees from discrimination based on religious or political views.
This is huge. Many stories about companies ditching woke policies consist of the company putting out a public statement (and often the controversy that follows). Statements are great, but they’re not the ideal. Companies can hide behind statements — and do. Several companies that have publicly made statements supporting political neutrality clearly have work to do when it comes to actually putting their policies where their mouths are.
But companies can’t hide behind policy changes. That’s why they’re a sign of both real progress and good faith. Shareholders like Bahnsen, and groups like ADF &amp; Bowyer Research, have been engaging with Chase for years to get this change. Make no mistake: Chase’s willingness to protect against future political/religious debanking is the result of real shareholders using real influence to create real change. It’s a victory for Chase’s customers and shareholders, but also for the company itself. It’s a win for a company to clear up concerns about corporate bias, a win that’s been a long time coming, and a win that hopefully many other banks will find instructive.
* * *
Isaac Willour is an award-winning journalist focusing on race, culture, and American conservatism, as well as a corporate relations analyst at Bowyer Research. His work has been featured at outlets including USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times Opinion, C-SPAN, and The Daily Wire. He is a member of the Young Voices contributor program and can be found on X <a href="https://twitter.com/IsaacWillour" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@IsaacWillour</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Major US Bank Bosses To Discuss Debanking With Senate Committee

Major Win: JPMorgan Chase Ends Political Debanking

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF)

Bias

Censorship

Christians

Conservatives

Jamie Dimon

Opinion

Debanking — when a bank decides they do not want you as a customer — has become a hot topic amid a flurry of accusations from people and companies who say they were kicked out of their banks over their politics.
The apparent targets of debanking tend to be prominent people on the Right and cryptocurrency companies, which tend to lean right and are under scrutiny from regulators. Former First Lady Melania Trump said in her recently published memoir that both she and her son Barron were refused bank accounts after January 6.
“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,” Trump <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/10/09/us-news/barron-trump-was-denied-bank-account-due-to-cancel-mob-mom-melania-claims/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>.
She blamed the “venom of cancel culture” and said she had “serious concerns about civil rights violations.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Your bank account will be closed if you don’t follow orders. 
Don’t believe me? 
WATCH👇 <a href="https://t.co/4PB9lhfQuv">pic.twitter.com/4PB9lhfQuv</a>
&mdash; Bitcoin Archive (@BTC_Archive) <a href="https://twitter.com/BTC_Archive/status/1861854554049909082?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 27, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Last month, conservative author Dinesh D&#8217;Souza claimed he was kicked out of Chase Bank without explanation.
&#8220;Walked in one day to discover they had closed my account,&#8221; D&#8217;Souza <a href="https://x.com/DineshDSouza/status/1862611334002544987" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> on X. &#8220;The local branch couldn’t understand it since I was a good and known customer. They said the order came from the top with no explanation given or even available!&#8221;
When a person or company is debanked, they are blocked from having a bank account at one or multiple banks, often with little explanation. Sometimes they are blocked from other financial services, such as making credit card transactions or using payroll platforms. If they cannot find another bank, they may be forced to rely on alternatives, like check cashing services with high fees and interest.
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/">50% OFF ALL DAILY WIRE ANNUAL MEMBERSHIPS FOR A LIMITED TIME!</a>
Meanwhile, debanking hurts their reputation.
Critics <a href="https://medium.com/@nic__carter/marc-andreessen-and-the-cfpb-debunking-the-debanking-debunkers-33e934442647" target="_blank" rel="noopener">note</a> that debanking resembles Big Tech&#8217;s censorship at the behest of the government <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/facebook-docs-reveal-fbi-agent-made-completely-false-congressional-statements-involving-hunter-biden-laptop-jordan-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">during</a> recent presidential elections.
Marc Andreessen, the tech billionaire founder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, which invests in dozens of crypto companies, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ye8MOfxD5nU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">spoke</a> in depth about debanking last month on Joe Rogan&#8217;s podcast. Andreessen said the Biden administration has used debanking to target its political opponents and crypto company founders.
&#8220;We&#8217;ve had like 30 founders debanked in the last four years,&#8221; he told Rogan. &#8220;It&#8217;s been a big recurring pattern. This is one of the reasons why we ended up supporting Trump. We just can&#8217;t live in this world. We can&#8217;t live in a world where somebody starts a company that&#8217;s a completely legal thing and then they literally get sanctioned and embargoed by the United States government.&#8221;
The Biden administration&#8217;s targeting is an expansion of the Obama administration&#8217;s debanking of certain legal businesses, including gambling, marijuana, prostitution, and gun shops, <a href="https://www.cei.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Iain-Murray-Operation-Choke-Point.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">under</a> a program called Operation Choke Point, Andreessen said.
&#8220;This administration extended that concept to apply it to tech founders, crypto founders, and just generally political opponents. So that&#8217;s been super pernicious,&#8221; Andreessen said.
Andreessen said that while the First Amendment protects speech, there is no constitutional amendment saying the government cannot debank you, so the government pressures private banks to do so. The banks comply because they rely on the government to exist, he <a href="https://x.com/pmarca/status/1862683729292083551" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.
&#8220;The government gets to say, &#8216;we didn&#8217;t do it,'&#8221; he said, and this system &#8220;lets bureaucrats do to American citizens the same thing we do to Iran, just kick you out of the financial system.&#8221;
&#8220;It&#8217;s just raw administrative power,&#8221; Andreessen said.
After Andreessen&#8217;s interview, a string of crypto founders <a href="https://x.com/davidmarcus/status/1862654506774810641" target="_blank" rel="noopener">spoke</a> out <a href="https://x.com/sidkal/status/1862117529667199033" target="_blank" rel="noopener">about</a> their experiences being debanked.
Elon Musk, who himself recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/shamelessly-breaking-the-law-elon-musk-blasts-california-officials-denying-spacex-launches" target="_blank" rel="noopener">faced</a> political discrimination against his SpaceX rocket launches by a California regulator, also spoke out and <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1862640443789357487" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called</a> for it to be a federal crime to debank political enemies. Musk <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1862633099906937251" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> debanking shows &#8220;just how evil the government has been.&#8221;
As far as which regulators are involved, critics mainly point the finger at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, but they also <a href="https://a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/debanking-explained/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">take</a> aim at the Department of Justice, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve Board, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Earlier this month, the crypto industry finally uncovered what it says is hard proof that federal regulators have been targeting them.
Documents obtained by the crypto platform Coinbase during a court fight <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/12/05/u-s-regulator-told-banks-to-lay-off-crypto-letters-obtained-by-coinbase-reveal" target="_blank" rel="noopener">showed</a> that in 2022, crypto companies saw their banking activity blocked at a large number of banks by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
&#8220;We respectfully ask that you pause all crypto asset-related activity,&#8221; the banking regulator wrote to banks in one message.
Advocates for cracking down on crypto <a href="https://a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/debanking-explained/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">say</a> they aim to prevent risky businesses from doing business.
Last year, the White House cited crypto as it <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/nec/briefing-room/2023/01/27/the-administrations-roadmap-to-mitigate-cryptocurrencies-risks/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">encouraged</a> banks to separate “risky digital assets from the banking system.” This is also a common cry <a href="https://x.com/SenWarren/status/1773805978762322376" target="_blank" rel="noopener">from</a> Sen. Elizabeth Warren, (D-MA) who received backlash for <a href="https://news.bitcoin.com/elizabeth-warren-explains-her-anti-crypto-army-stance-waves-of-democrats-oppose-her-bitcoin-criticism/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vowing</a> to mobilize an &#8220;anti-crypto army.&#8221;
However, the crypto world is optimistic about the next few years.
President-elect Donald Trump has promised to make the United States the “crypto capital of the planet,” and he acknowledged the ire around debanking during his campaign.
“They target your banks. They choke off your financial services,” he told a Bitcoin conference in Nashville in July.
Earlier this month, Trump appointed venture capitalist David Sacks the White House AI and Crypto Czar. Sacks previously <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/how-big-tech-is-strangling-your-freedom" target="_blank" rel="noopener">criticized</a> PayPal, where he was product manager, for its 2017 <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/paypal-suspends-dozens-of-racist-groups-sites-altright-com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ban</a> on what it deemed right-wing extremists.
Conservatives have expressed other concerns about banks allegedly targeting them as well.
Although not debanking exactly, after the January 6 Capitol riot, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network instructed banks to comb through customer transactions for “suspicious charges,” which included words like “MAGA” and “Trump” as well as guns and religious texts.
Under a new Trump administration, conservatives hope regulators will be more reluctant to target them through the banking system, and they may be in luck.
Trump <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-money/2024/07/03/the-looming-battle-over-debanking-00166402" target="_blank" rel="noopener">promised</a> at a rally this year that once elected he will “place strong protections to stop banks and regulators from trying to debank you from your political beliefs.”

Hand Putting Card into ATM

What Is Debanking And Why Are People Talking About It?

Cryptocurrency

Deep State

America’s most powerful financial institutions appear to be promoting young professionals on the basis of race and sex in the name of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo both hosted summer programs that barred white men unless they happened to be disabled, a veteran, or identify as LGBT. Goldman Sachs held career advancement summits tailored to students of specific demographic backgrounds, while JP Morgan hosted a scholarship and internship program that openly excluded white and Asian students. Bank of America, meanwhile, ran a &#8220;diversity fellowship&#8221; program that solicited applicants from non-white, non-Asian racial backgrounds.
The programs collectively furthered the leftwing DEI agenda, which presupposes certain demographic groups benefit from undue privilege at the expense of oppressed groups. Corporations across various industries have established racially-based hiring and advancement programs to rectify this alleged injustice by engaging in anti-white, and in some cases, anti-Asian discrimination, which may run afoul of the law.
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The financial industry&#8217;s embrace of DEI could be disastrous, <a href="https://www.newfounding.com">New Founding</a> CEO Nate Fischer told The Daily Wire.
&#8220;The move to DEI reflects a broader trend away from even aiming for the entrepreneurial investment of capital—a primary driver of wealth creation in our country—and toward a bureaucratic, formulaic model of capital allocation that rewards large bureaucratic corporations and other politically connected parties rather than those with the potential to produce strong returns,&#8221; Fischer explained.
Morgan Stanley’s <a href="https://morganstanley.tal.net/vx/candidate/apply/16329">Early Insights</a> program, a summer training program that teaches undergraduate students about the financial field, is aimed specifically at those who come from “historically underrepresented populations” and gives participants the opportunity to apply for a summer analyst position.
“One way we demonstrate our commitment to diversity is through our Summer Internship Programs,” Morgan Stanley says, calling it “an integral part of our diversity recruiting efforts.”
“Historically underrepresented populations in the finance industry include: women, Hispanic, Black, veteran, disabled, LGBTQ+, and first-generation college student populations,” Morgan Stanley states under the header “eligibility requirements.”
Morgan Stanley is far from the only financial institution that appears to discriminate against white and Asian men. Wells Fargo also hosted an <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20230805065849/https://www.wellsfargojobs.com/en/university-programs/cib-mba-diversity-fellowship/">MBA Diversity Fellowship</a> that similarly steers applicants into a summer internship program and offers $35,000 towards the MBA programs of those who accept and complete the internship program.
“The fellowship is designed to be a best-in-class program to pipeline high-potential underrepresented candidates into our Investment Banking Summer Associate Program,” Wells Fargo states. The institution goes on to explain that the term “underrepresented candidates” includes those who are “female, Black/African American, Latinx/Hispanic, Asian, Native American/Alaskan Native and LGBTQIA+ students, as well as protected veterans and people with disabilities.”
Goldman Sachs <a href="https://www.goldmansachs.com/careers/students/programs/americas/possibilities-summits.html">Possibilities Summits</a> does not appear to be racially-biased at first blush, merely intended for undergraduate students who want to “cultivate top industry skills and explore the wealth of opportunities available at Goldman Sachs.”
But the company hosts several summits, each aimed at a different identity group. There’s the “Black Possibilities Summit,” “HBCU Possibilities Summit,” “Hispanic/Latinx Possibilities Summit,” and the “Women’s Possibilities Summit.” White and Asian men only appear to be eligible if they meet the criteria of other identity-based summits for those who identify as LGBT, are veterans, attend a City of New York school, or are disabled.
A now-deleted page from JP Morgan advertised an undergraduate scholarship and internship program that appeared to explicitly engage in racial discrimination against white and Asian students. The details of JP Morgan’s “Launching Leaders Undergraduate Program” have been <a href="https://archive.ph/L39XO">preserved</a> on the Baruch College website.
“The program is open to Black, Hispanic and Native American sophomores and juniors from all majors who are interested in financial services and have a 3.5 GPA minimum,” the description reads. “The Launching Leaders Undergraduate Scholarship includes internship opportunities, as well as scholarships of up to $15,000. It gives talented Black, Hispanic and Native American students the chance to fulfill their career ambitions.”
A spokeswoman for JP Morgan told The Daily Wire that the company has not hosted the program for “many years,” but did not respond when asked if the company was willing to state on the record that it would not host discriminatory internship programs in the future.
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Bank of America&#8217;s MBA Diversity Fellowship Program “will award merit-based fellowships to individuals who are Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, Native American, military veterans, LGBT+, students with disabilities and women in their first year of business school.”
The financial institution adds a caveat, however, and explains “while our goal is to target underrepresented groups, all eligible students regardless of background are encouraged to apply.”
While many of these internship and career opportunity postings do not explicitly bar people from certain backgrounds from applying, they do indicate that those from certain backgrounds are particularly encouraged to apply, and necessitate that those from white or Asian backgrounds meet other criteria that those from other backgrounds are not required to meet as a condition of eligibility.
David Bernstein, a professor at George Mason&#8217;s Antonin Scalia School of Law, told The Daily Wire that companies may still be engaging in illegal discrimination even if they technically allow certain qualified whites or Asians into programs.
&#8220;If you are giving illegal preferences based on race, they don&#8217;t become lawful because you are also giving other preferences not based on race,&#8221; Bernstein explained.
He added that the Biden administration appears to have adopted the perspective that programs like those from these financial institutions do not constitute discrimination before calling this approach &#8220;clearly inconsistent with Supreme Court precedent.&#8221;
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) does <a href="https://www.eeoc.gov/prohibited-employment-policiespractices">discuss</a> job recruitment and advertising practices, specifically barring those that show racial preferences.
“It is illegal for an employer to publish a job advertisement that shows a preference for or discourages someone from applying for a job because of his or her race, color, religion, sex,” the EEOC explains. “It is also illegal for an employer to recruit new employees in a way that discriminates against them.”
The financial and banking sectors are hardly the only industries that have openly discriminated against white and Asian applicants, however. A series of investigations from The Daily Wire revealed that DEI discrimination is commonplace across a range of different industries.
NASCAR, for example, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/blatantly-illegal-nascar-bans-white-applicants-from-diversity-internship">hosted two different internships</a> that explicitly listed certain racial backgrounds as program requirements, only omitting white people. Bernstein told The Daily Wire that NASCAR&#8217;s program requirements were “blatantly illegal.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
&#8220;Blatantly Illegal:&#8221; NASCAR hosted a paid &#8220;diversity internship&#8221; that banned white applicants on the basis of their race, my latest report in <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDailyWire</a> reveals.
But it&#8217;s just one of NASCAR&#8217;s several racially discriminatory diversity initiatives.
Thread🧵 <a href="https://t.co/hDWqsAd1iX">pic.twitter.com/hDWqsAd1iX</a>
— Spencer Lindquist 🇺🇸 (@SpencerLndqst) <a href="https://twitter.com/SpencerLndqst/status/1696158071221866511?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 28, 2023</a></blockquote>
The owner of the New England Patriots, Robert Kraft, recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-england-patriots-owner-under-fire-for-discriminatory-bipoc-job-requirement">came under fire</a> after it was revealed that his company, the Kraft Group, listed a job posting that was only open to those who are “BIPOC,” an acronym that stands for “black, indigenous, people of color.”
Multiple major tech companies have also held programs that discriminate against white and Asian people on the basis of their race. The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/oracle-internship-scholarship-opportunities-bar-whites-and-asians-on-the-basis-of-race">revealed</a> that Oracle hosted internship and scholarship opportunities that barred both whites and Asians, with approved racial groups being listed under the program’s “eligibility requirements.”
Apple hosted an entrepreneur training program that required participating companies to have “a black, Hispanic/Latinx, or Indigenous founder, cofounder, or CEO” as well as a developer from the same racial and ethnic backgrounds, The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/apple-entrepreneur-camp-program-bars-applicants-based-on-race">revealed</a>.
Corporations from across different sectors, including Bayer Pharmaceuticals, US Bank, Best Buy, and Liberty Mutual all participated in a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/major-bank-pharmaceutical-giant-participated-in-mckinsey-training-that-banned-white-people">training program</a> from McKinsey and Company that barred white people on the basis of their race.

Morgan Stanley Building

America’s Top Banks Host Programs That Discriminate Against White And Asian Men

The Lee County Sheriff&#8217;s Office (FL) released video footage over the weekend that showed the moment a police sniper shot through a computer monitor to kill a bank robber who took hostages.
The incident happened in February when an unnamed 36-year-old man armed with a knife and claimed to have a bomb entered a Bank of America branch in Fort Myers.
&#8220;He had two hostages at this point and we tried to negotiate with him continuously,&#8221; Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said at the time. &#8220;At one point during negotiations he became physical, he started to put one of the hostages in a headlock and he had the knife to her throat.&#8221;
&#8220;SWAT team was in place, when he presented deadly like that, our SWAT sniper shot and killed the suspect,&#8221; he added.
Police said in a video released on Saturday that the sniper rested his rifle on the shoulder of one of the other SWAT team members as the team stood in the lobby of the bank.
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The video shows that given the number of SWAT team members present and the position of the sniper, it would have been difficult for the suspect to see that law enforcement was preparing to neutralize him.
The sniper shot through a computer monitor and struck the suspect in the center of the forehead, killing him instantly, police said.
The moment the sniper takes the shot, the suspect&#8217;s head is blurred in the video to spare viewers the graphic scene.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
WATCH: Harrowing video shows moment sniper shoots through computer monitor and in between 2 hostages, taking out hostage-taker at Florida bank <a href="https://t.co/jt2anv3fo0">pic.twitter.com/jt2anv3fo0</a>
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) <a href="https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1799912615176786151?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 9, 2024</a></blockquote>

Sniper

VIDEO: Florida Sniper Shoots Bank Robber Through Computer Monitor In Hostage Situation

Florida

U.S.

Tennessee Republican Governor Bill Lee signed a bill into law earlier this week that prohibits financial institutions, such as banks and credit card companies, from specifically tracking gun and ammunition purchases.
<a href="https://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/BillInfo/Default.aspx?BillNumber=HB2762" target="_blank" rel="noopener">House Bill 2762</a>, also called the &#8220;Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act,&#8221; prohibits financial institutions from requiring gun retailers to use a specific merchant code &#8220;that distinguishes a firearms retailer from a general merchandise retailer or a sporting goods retailer.&#8221; All retailers are assigned merchant codes based on what they sell, allowing banks and credit card companies to track purchasing patterns and protect against fraud. Gun retailers&#8217; merchant codes are usually included with those of other shops, like sporting goods stores.
State Rep. Rusty Grills, a Republican, introduced the legislation earlier this year after credit card companies Visa and Mastercard <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/visa-to-categorize-sales-at-gun-stores-in-win-for-gun-control-advocates" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> plans to separately categorize firearm and ammunition purchases in 2022.
The &#8220;Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act&#8221; also prohibits financial institutions from declining credit card transactions &#8220;based solely on the assignment or non-assignment of a firearms merchant category code&#8221; and outlaws government entities from keeping a registry of privately owned firearms or gun owners in the state.
Rep. Grills told The Daily Wire in a phone conversation on Thursday that he introduced the legislation to &#8220;protect the Second Amendment rights of all those in Tennessee&#8221; by preventing financial institutions from creating &#8220;a database&#8221; of gun buyers, a possibility Grills said is troubling because many corporations are being led by &#8220;capitalist woke folks.&#8221; Grills added that this new law will preempt any potential future efforts by institutions to interfere with Tenesseeans&#8217; Second Amendment rights.
&#8220;We would rather be able to protect our rights from the beginning rather than have to fight for our rights back at the end,&#8221; Grills said.
The bill passed the state House and Senate earlier this month before it was signed into law by Gov. Lee on Tuesday.
In 2022, the International Organization for Standardization (IOS) — which develops proprietary, industrial, and commercial standards — <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/exclusive-global-standards-body-approves-new-merchant-code-gun-sellers-2022-09-09/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">approved</a> a new merchant code specifically for gun retailers.
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Shortly after the IOS approved the change, credit card companies took the step of categorizing gun purchases separately from all other purchases. At the time, congressional Democrats were also <a href="https://twitter.com/SenWarren/status/1567214955690135552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1567214955690135552%7Ctwgr%5Ef5ec583f964c1dc4fbe19556fa5ca458046587c1%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.dailywire.com%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost.php%3Fpost%3D728687action%3Dedit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">urging</a> Visa, Mastercard, and American Express to &#8220;do more to help stop mass shootings.&#8221;
Those three credit card companies, however, paused plans to track gun purchases a few months later after Republican lawmakers and attorneys general <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/23-republican-ags-warn-credit-card-companies-to-abandon-plan-to-identify-gun-sales" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warned</a> the payment processors of the constitutional ramifications of their proposal. But in February of this year, Visa, Mastercard, and American Express moved forward with a plan to potentially track gun purchases in California, CBS News <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/american-express-visa-mastercard-gun-merchant-code/">reported</a>.
While multiple Republican-led state legislatures have passed bans on the specific merchant code for gun retailers, California passed a law requiring gun retailers to adopt the merchant code by May 2025.

Gun Store

Tennessee Governor Signs Bill Preventing Financial Institutions From Conducting Unauthorized Surveillance Of Gun Buyers

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