Sam Brownback, the former U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, expressed his approval of President Donald Trump's public rebuke of Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase CEOs for allegedly “debanking” conservatives and Christian organizations.
“I'm delighted,” Brownback, who served as governor of Kansas before becoming ambassador in Trump's first administration, told The Christian Post on Thursday. “This thing has been swept under the carpet for way too long, and to get it finally out in the open is an important step to getting it solved.”
Following Trump’s recent comments at the World Economic Forum's 2025 Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, both banks have come under renewed scrutiny for their alleged discriminatory practices against conservatives and Christian organizations.
Trump specifically called out Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan, urging him, “I hope you start opening your bank to conservatives because many conservatives complain that the banks are not allowing them to do business within the bank; they don’t take conservative business.”
Moynihan has been the CEO of Bank of America since 2010 and was speaking to Trump as part of a panel with other major CEOs.
In response, Bank of America released a statement on its X account, arguing that “Bank of America serves more than 70 million clients and we welcome conservatives. We would never close accounts for political reasons and don't have a political litmus test.”
Trump also mentioned JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who has held his position since 2006 but was not present at the panel.
Trump remarked, “I don’t know if the regulators mandated that [debanking] because of Biden or what,” emphasizing, “But you and Jamie [Dimon] and everyone else, I hope you’ll open your banks to conservatives because what you’re doing is wrong.”
Brownback's concerns were rooted in the experiences of the National Committee for Religious Freedom (NCRF), a nonpartisan, multi-faith nonprofit he launched in 2022. He revealed that JPMorgan Chase abruptly closed NCRF's bank account less than three weeks after it was opened, without explaining.
“The people said the decision was made at the corporate level, that it’s secret, and that they wouldn’t disclose the reason, stating it was irrevocable,” Brownback told Fox Business. “We were just stunned.”
He alleged that JPMorgan Chase ignored inquiries from NCRF's executive director regarding the account closure and indicated that the bank suggested reconsidering their business relationship if the organization disclosed its donors and specified the political candidates it intended to support. At the time, the bank denied that the account closure was based on the organization’s political or religious views.
Brownback pointed out that JPMorgan Chase faced a similar backlash after the closure of his nonprofit's account. In May 2023, 19 Republican state attorneys general sent a letter to Dimon, urging the bank to “stop its religious and politically biased discrimination and start living up to its commitment to an inclusive society where everyone feels welcomed, equal, and included.”
Brownback noted that a shareholder resolution was introduced that month with the help of Alliance Defending Freedom, but it ultimately failed to pass. The resolution urged the finance behemoth to evaluate how it manages risk related to discrimination based on religious and political views.
The bank's board of directors recommended that shareholders vote against the resolution, to which Brownback remarked that Dimon “just kind of sloughed it off.” He described this reaction as a “typical response that has happened to date,” adding, “Hopefully, that will start to change now.”
Brownback believes that religious and political discrimination extends beyond just two major banks, suggesting that such persecution is becoming endemic in corporate America. He hopes to address these pressing issues further at the National Council for Religious Freedom's annual gathering in Washington, D.C., on February 6.
