American families across the country have been having a hard time building their futures with a basic first step of making a long-term investment like homeownership.

Now, there could be evidence showing up in a new investigation by the Trump Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that one major U.S. bank allegedly put on the brakes for some potential applicants and stomped on the gas for others - based on their race.

HUD Secretary Scott Turner said on Wednesday that some of Wells Fargo's policies on home loans were actually "DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) dressed up" as fake equal opportunity. And they have started a probe:

The Wall Street Journal reported exclusively on the investigation:

The Department of Housing and Urban Development sent a letter to the bank’s chief executive, Charlie Scharf, saying it is going to look into whether the bank violated fair-lending laws by favoring Black or other minority homeowners, WSJ reported.

The letter, addressed to Charles W. Scharf, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the banking giant, from Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, Craig Trainor, read in part:

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Under President Trump’s historic leadership, “it is the policy of the United States to protect the civil rights of all Americans.”2 That mandate includes ensuring nationwide compliance with the Fair Housing Act.  

Under the Biden Administration, race-conscious lending programs proliferated throughout the financial sector.3 The Fair Housing Act, however, prevents every entity engaged in “residential real estate-related transactions” from discriminating against “any person” in the availability or “terms or conditions of such a transaction because of race … or national origin.”4

It continued with a description of the alleged violations of law by the company, with a heavy hint that HUD might consider passing along its findings to the Justice Department (DOJ).

In response to your bank’s repeated public promotion of explicit race-based lending policies, I have directed the Office of Special Investigations to investigate Wells Fargo for potential fair housing violations. Our investigation will determine whether Wells Fargo has violated or intends to violate 42 U.S.C. § 3605. 

Upon completion of our investigation, the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) may file a complaint against Wells Fargo for discrimination based on race or national origin under the applicable statutes. If FHEO finds reasonable cause to believe Wells Fargo has or intends to violate the civil rights of its customers, we will file charges of discrimination or refer the matter to the United States Department of Justice for further enforcement.  

HUD also demanded that Wells Fargo preserve all records that might be connected to its investigation, whether those are documents or electronic records, including communications and other relevant materials.

The letter ended by saying that "[w]ithin ten (10) business days of this letter’s date, FHEO will issue initial requests for information from Wells Fargo." In other words, we'll get back to you sooner rather than later. 

Secretary Turner said, “Even if Wells Fargo did not violate the law, its practice of dividing Americans based on race is immoral, unethical and un-American. Wells Fargo and all of its employees that engaged in race-based decision-making should be ashamed of themselves.”

Asst. Sec. Trainor also added in a statement, “The Fair Housing Act forbids racial discrimination in housing. It does not say: discriminate, so long as the discrimination is called a ‘special purpose credit program’ and justified as advancing ‘racial equity in homeownership."

“No matter an institution’s size, wealth, or power, if there is reasonable cause to believe it has violated Americans’ civil rights, the Trump Administration will hold it to account,” he said.

And as the WSJ's Dylan Tokar noted on X, this is not the first time Wells Fargo has been criticized over its "DEI-related initiatives to help minority homeowners": 

You can read the full HUD letter here.

The Trump administration has been making other moves lately to clean up the housing programs paid for by taxpayer dollars: