The Right is trying desperately to deflect responsibility for the collapse of fintech bank Silicon Valley Bank.

They’re trying to blame interest rates hikes by the Fed under Biden for why SVB went down.

But it’s very simple: gutting the Dodd-Frank regulation that would have prevented exactly this scenario is what caused the most harm.

The Right, however, responsible for gutting the regulation in 2018, wants it to be about morality – the bank was too “woke” to stay open. The idea seems to be a favorite of Donald Trump.

Donald Trump Jr. tweeted that SVB’s collapse was “what happens when you push a leftist/woke ideology.” And Senator Josh Hawley wrote, “So these SVB guys spend all their time funding woke garbage (‘climate change solutions’) rather than actual banking and now want a handout from taxpayers to save them.”

Ron DeSantis told Fox that SVB was “so concerned with DEI and politics,” and former Trump admin member Stephen Miller asked “how many hours & dollars were spent on equity/DEI/ESG/climate scams.”

What?

The reality is, they’re trying not to say the quiet part out loud. SVB’s board had 45% women, one Black member, one “LGBTQ+” member, and two veterans.

They don’t want to say “it failed because women/gay people/Black people” were in charge – but that’s what they’re getting at.

Zach Teutsch, founder of a financial advisory firm for progressives called Values Added Financial, told Vox this week, “If anything, the problem at the failed banks was a lack of diversity, especially a lack of diversity in their balance sheets.”

It’s hard to imagine anything less “woke” or anti-capitalist than a large bank like Silicon Valley Bank, but needing facts to align with rhetoric isn’t always a strength of the MAGA crowd.