The first Black bank regulator to be replaced by white GOP insider

By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Columnist

Maybe it was always too good to be true. For a while, though, it seemed like President Trump had made a surprisingly strong and racially historic appointment for U.S. Comptroller of the Currency, which basically regulates America’s banks.

Rodney E. Hood had already made history in Trump’s first term, becoming the first African American to lead a federal financial regulator – as chairman of the National Credit Union Administration, where he served from 2019 until 2024. That actually constituted his second appointment as an NCUA regulator, also having held that position from 2005 to 2010.

Both there and throughout his career, Hood has stood as a strong supporter of community banking and perhaps the nation’s loudest Republican advocate for extending credit opportunities to disadvantaged communities. He also maintained a robust opposition to “debanking,” a supposed priority of the Trump administration in its first months back in office.

Therefore, when Hood was named “acting” comptroller on February 10, most observers widely expected that he would eventually be Trump’s nominee to lead this critical independent bureau of the U.S. Treasury Department – which supervises all national banks and federal thrift institutions in the United States. Notably, Hood has twice been confirmed by the U.S. Senate without controversy.

But not so fast. Now, the Oval Office is proposing a Caucasian securities lawyer with less experience – yet perhaps possessed of a higher campaign contribution record – for the job.

Donald Trump has often declared that he seeks the best qualified person for each position. “The best people,” as he puts it, and the president certainly seemed satisfied with Hood as chair of the NCUA in his first term.

However in a move which has gained little press attention, the Trump White House decided to submit a different candidate to the Senate for confirmation – a politically-connected securities lawyer with only a fraction of Hood’s regulatory experience.

Hood will remain in the job until the upper chamber of Congress accepts or rejects that candidate.

Considering the comptroller oversees pretty much the entire banking sector, the Senate might wish to consider whether to accept a replacement candidate over one who has better qualifications. After all, that defines the nature of its constitutional “advise and consent” power. Unless, of course, President Trump has bigger things in mind for Rodney Hood. Currently, not much evidence exists to suggest such a happy outcome, yet these decisions often remain impenetrable to the average voter.

President Trump makes frequent mention that he increased his 2016 share of the Black vote to an historic level last year for a GOP contender. It has been surmised by some that the increase has more to do with Democrats having taken the African-American electorate for granted. Now, perhaps, Trump replicates that same mistake. The president often has predicated his rejection of DEI programs on the notion that the “best qualified” candidate should always get the job. Unless, one might be forgiven for suspecting, if that candidate happens to be the Black man?

This article originally published in the March 17, 2025 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.