“Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.” - Louis Brandeis
THE SIGNAL
Capital One notified the Trump Organization, Eric Trump, and roughly 385 affiliated accounts in March 2021 that their decade-plus banking relationship was ending.
The public was not given an explanation from the bank, which meant, we the public had to make our own judgement. For me, it really didn’t resonant until just recently.
Then four years later in 2025. The Trump Organization and Eric Trump sued the bank. They claimed the accounts were closed for political reasons. They claimed it was because of the January 6 riot. But a federal judge dismissed earlier versions of the lawsuit. Stating the bank had a contractual right to close accounts.
Then we got an explanation. Capital One publicly explained its decision. The bank said its financial crimes team had conducted a months-long anti-money laundering review. After that assessment they closed the accounts.
THE FAILURE POINT
The problem wasn’t that Capital One had closed an account. It was being silent until four years later.
When decisions and explanations become separated especially by years, trust can be lost. The lesson is simple: when a decision is made, you’re better off giving an explanation rather than letting others fill that in.
We can accept difficult decisions. This is how our life is. What we don’t like is a long silence about why the decision was made. Think of being let go from a job. You quickly accept it. But then start questioning why.
SIGNAL WITHIN THE SIGNAL
Norman’s Law: when external pressure exceeds internal regulation, instability follows.
Every management system gets pressure tested. But when the pressure exceeds what the system was designed to handle, weaknesses get exposed.
Capital One’s process was built for routine account closures, we don’t know how often or how many accounts are closed by banks. But in this case, the pressure changed.
What works under normal conditions usually doesn’t get this level of attention. But when you are talking about the President’s company and family, that’s a different story.
Worth checking where your own team sits on that same gap before assuming it's someone else's problem.
Score your gap → mosei.org/gap-diagnostic
BEHAVIOR UNDER PRESSURE
When the suit landed, Capital One did what most institutions do under threat. It reached for the defensible position first: the contract allowed this, full stop. Only when that position started losing in court did the bank reach for the operational one, producing the AML review months after the fact, in a filing, under a judge’s pressure to dismiss. The instinct was legal cover before documented substance. That instinct is common. It is also exactly backward from what protects an institution once the political weather shifts.
SYSTEM DRIVER - MOS
The structural fix is not a new closure policy. But a rule that decisions of this size get an explanation the day the decision is made. Don’t leave it for someone else to make up a story.
Every bank operating on a termination clause has this same exposure. It costs nothing to fix before a lawsuit. It costs years and legal fees to fix after one, this is why Capital One is going through what it is.
LEADER DRIVER - INTERNAL OPERATING SYSTEM (IOS) - REGULATE
So what does a leader do? The thinking, “we’re allowed to” can lead to unforeseen issues. There needs to be a process where you can explain, why, today and in writing.
Capital One’s financial crimes team likely had a real and defensible reason in 2021. What it did not have was the discipline to write that reason down or make it public. That discipline has to be built before the decision, not afterward as a defensive position.
IF YOU DO ONE THING TODAY
This is where I try to offer a bit of guidance in each article.
Pull the last five decisions your organization made, a termination or a closure. Check whether each one has a dated, named rationale sitting somewhere you could produce in an hour.
If it does not exist, write it now, while the reasoning is still accurate, not later, when it has to be reconstructed for someone else’s timeline.
PRESSURE / REGULATE
Pressure: 7.5 / Regulation: 5.1
System risk, documentation discipline to balance external pressure
FINAL SIGNAL
The bank made a decision to close accounts, but no messaging with an account that was going to draw public attention, is a huge gap.
CTA
Find out where your gap is before it costs you. Score your own gap here, takes about three minutes.
mosei.org/gap-diagnostic.html
SOURCES
NPR, Al Jazeera, CNBC, Yahoo Finance, court filings in Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust v. Capital One.
I have always thought that most of the huge corp would usually figure out all the legal loopholes to protect themselves first before they attempt anything