Retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson is trending as speculation about a Trump ticket VP grows. Carson, who unsuccessfully ran against Donald Trump in the 2016 GOP presidential primary and later became the former president’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (2017-2021), is currently a co-owner of Old Glory Bank.
Carson co-founded the bank with country music singer John Rich and conservative political commentator Larry Elder, who dropped out of the 2024 presidential race in October 2023 and joined Carson in endorsing Trump.
One of the Old Glory Bank taglines is: “Old Glory Bank will never cancel you for exercising your freedoms.” The bank, which is headquartered in Elmore City, Oklahoma (population 738), positions itself as “the alternative to cancel culture and the wokeness that is infecting the banking industry.”
[Fun fact: The 1984 film Footloose starring Kevin Bacon is loosely based on events that took place in the town of Elmore City, which banned dancing from 1898 to 1980.]
As seen in the promotional video below, Carson flaunted his new Old Glory Bank debit card and said: “When I saw my Old Glory debit card for the first time, I was absolutely thrilled. I said, ‘That is a pretty card, much prettier than most cards.'”
Hearing Carson encourage “patriots” to refinance their homes with the help of Old Glory Bank triggered for some a memory of Carson’s viral congressional testimony in 2019, when he was asked by U.S. Representative Katie Porter (D-CA) if he knew what the acronym REO stood for.
Then-Secretary Carson initially confused REO with the cookie, Oreo. The term REO stands for “Real Estate Owned” which refers to housing owned by a bank or lending institution post-foreclosure.
I asked @SecretaryCarson about REOs – a basic term related to foreclosure – at a hearing today. He thought I was referring to a chocolate sandwich cookie. No, really. pic.twitter.com/cYekJAkRag
— Rep. Katie Porter (@RepKatiePorter) May 21, 2019
(NOTE: Old Glory Bank was previously called First State Bank, which was established in 1903. In November of 2022, Carson and others acquired First State Bank and changed its name to Old Glory Bank.)
