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August 19, 2025
Is This the Dawning of the Disappearing ‘Woke’ Era?
Corporate America might be finally listening the rest of America telling them that “go woke” means “go broke.” Talk of “woke” policies appears to be waning in corporate boardrooms.
Bloomberg Law published a column, “DEI Chatter Plummets Among Previously Vocal Corporate Advocates” that spells out how corporations are abandoning policies that discriminated against businesses that didn’t bend to the “woke” agenda.
Bloomberg Law author Drew Hutchinson wrote that “woke” language dropped by 68 percent year-over-year among S&P 100 companies. That includes “woke” policies that targeted and discriminated against firearm and ammunition businesses.
Take, for instance, the proposed firearm-retailer specific Merchant Category Code (MCC) by Amalgamated Bank to peer into the private purchases by law-abiding gun owners when they legally buy a gun or ammunition.
Fighting Discrimination
NSSF worked with lawmakers to expose privacy invasion concerns for law-abiding citizens exercising their right to keep and bear arms. Credit card companies “paused” implementation and so far 20 states have enacted NSSF-supported laws to protect the privacy of firearm and ammunition purchasers. Legislation is pending in Congress by U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), as S. 1715, the Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act, and a companion bill by U.S. Rep. Riley Moore (R-W.V.), as H.R. 1181.
The pushback against financial discrimination that targeted the firearm industry is in full force. Earlier this month, President Trump issued his Executive Order Guaranteeing Free and Fair Banking for All Americans, which NSSF welcomed with open arms.
U.S. Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.), no stranger to battling banking discrimination against the firearm industry, said he would introduce legislation to codify President Trump’s executive order so a future president can’t undo it with the stroke of a pen. He’s already sponsored the NSSF-supported Fair Access to Banking Act, H.R. 987, which would require banks to provide access to services, capital and credit based on the objective risk assessment of individual customers, rather than subjective broad-based decisions affecting whole categories or classes of customers.
U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) sponsored the Senate version of the Fair Access to Banking Act, S. 401, also supported by NSSF.
The Senate’s Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-S.C.) offered his own legislation, the NSSF-supported Financial Integrity and Regulation Management (FIRM) Act, S. 875, which has already passed favorably from the Senate Banking Committee. Rep. Barr, introduced a House companion bill as H.R. 2702, which has also passed favorably from the House Financial Services Committee.
That’s all in addition to the NSSF-supported Firearm Industry Nondiscrimination (FIND) Act, introduced by Rep. Jack Bergman as H.R. 45 and by Sen. Steve Daines as S. 137.
Good Riddance
Wall Street is finally getting the message. Citigroup recently dropped its “woke” discrimination policy that iced out firearm and ammunition businesses. NSSF welcomed the announcement and is carefully monitoring to see if those words are backed by deeds.
Similar discriminatory policies were adopted by others, including Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo. NSSF is fighting against these discriminatory policies that originally were rooted in the illegal Operation Choke Point, hatched under President Barack Obama and former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. That scheme weaponized the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) to stop financial institutions from offering services to some regulated industries in an attempt to choke off banking services.
President Takes Discrimination to the Woodshed
The “woke” antigun agenda was in full force throughout the Biden administration and only began crumbling when President Trump put the banking giants on notice shortly after taking office in January.
President Trump wasted no time or words telling Bank of American CEO Brian Moynihan and others that banking discrimination was ending and public policy would be set by elected officials, not nameless and unaccountable corporate executives in Wall Street ivory towers.
“You and Jamie [JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon] and everybody else, I hope you start opening your banks to conservatives,” President Trump said directly to Moynihan. “What you’re doing is wrong.” Dimon in 2021 testified at a Congressional hearing and stated under oath that JP Morgan Chase would not lend to manufacturers of Modern Sporting Rifles (MSRs).
“Many conservatives were complaining that the banks were not allowing them to do business, and that included a place called Bank of America,” President Trump continued. “I don’t know if it was the regulators mandated that because of Biden or what, but…I hope you’re going to open your banks to conservatives because what you’re doing is wrong.”
President Trump’s tough talk, backed by tough action, makes it easy to see why “woke” policies are disappearing from the corporate landscape. It was never a winning idea. It only served a radical agenda to target the firearm and ammunition industry. It couldn’t go away too soon.
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