In a striking turn of events, several senior banking executives have broken their long-standing silence, revealing that political coercion, not just regulatory prudence, steered decisions about whose bank accounts to close and services to deny.

Their admissions come on the heels of President Donald Trump’s executive order, Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans, issued on August 7, 2025, which explicitly outlaws politicized or unlawful debanking and prohibits the nebulous use of “reputational risk” as justification for denying service.

Until now, institutions like JPMorgan, Bank of America, CitiGroup, and PNC have staunchly defended their practices, insisting that account closures rested solely on objective criteria. But in an extraordinary shift, these same banks through unnamed executives quoted by Fox News Digital have now voiced concerns about the “very, very real” pressure they felt from federal regulators under the Obama and Biden administrations.

Skeptics will note that these executives are speaking off the record, and that Fox News is currently the only outlet reporting their claims. Even so, the account is credible because it tracks with a broader pattern of government influence over private industry. We already know that federal agencies leaned on Big Tech companies to stifle conservative voices online. It would not be a stretch to see the same pressure applied to America’s financial institutions behind closed doors.

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