Right-wing podcasters are using the Silicon Valley Bank collapse to sell their viewers on another grift, this time telling audiences to buy precious metals or support conservative businesses. 

One of the main themes of these podcasters’ commentary has been baselessly blaming the crisis on SVB’s diversity initiatives. Jack Posobiec took this line to his daily podcast, Human Events Daily, along with his guest, Post Millennial editor Libby Emmons, to claim SVB failed because of its ESG investments. He then pivoted into an advertisement for the conservative company Public SQ, saying “a lot of people complain” about “woke corporations,” telling listeners if they would like to support “a bank that would never cancel you for your political views” to use the right-wing business database.

On another podcast, Benny Johnson admonished the Biden administration by claiming they had a faster response to SVB than the East Palestine train derailment. Johnson then called President Joe Biden the “death knell of your finances” before launching into an advertisement for his Allegiant Gold partnership. Allegiant is a gold exploration company. Johnson asked his viewers “are you prepared for your bank to collapse?” then called Allegiant a “fortress” and praised precious metals for being insoluble.

On War Room, Steve Bannon told his audience the SVB failure “affects your life” and attacked the Biden administration’s economic plan to manage the fallout from the bank’s collapse, which includes making sure depositors are made whole and preventing a domino effect. Bannon then promoted visiting Birch Gold’s website and reading his pamphlet series written in partnership with the company, “The End of the Dollar Empire.” Birch Gold is a precious metals investment firm that Bannon partners with.

Bannon is a prolific grifter who also recently used news of the Chinese spy balloon to sell prepper supplies. These types of hustles are a long-standing feature of how right-wing media sustains itself.