For almost my entire military career and beyond, USAA, the San Antonio-based insurance and financial services giant that built its reputation serving military members and their families, provided my family with auto and home insurance, and even a credit card.

But as I wrote last year, I left USAA after a long slide in customer service crystalized when I heard of USAA’s debanking of conservative lawyer John Eastman. And the hard lessons for USAA continue.

USAA’s troubles hit a new low when S&P Global Ratings downgraded its financial strength rating from AA+ to AA, following Moody’s decision to drop USAA’s rating from Aaa to Aa1 on May 19. The culprit? Persistent issues with USAA Federal Savings Bank, which has attracted regulatory scrutiny and suffered financial losses.

S&P pointed to “new or continuing violations of law, rule, or regulation” flagged by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) in December 2024, noting that the bank’s compliance failures have eroded USAA’s overall earnings diversity. Up until 2020, the bank contributed roughly $1 billion annually to USAA’s pretax income, but since then it has posted average annual losses of $236 million. These financial stumbles, combined with a weakened resilience compared to peers, led to the downgrade.

Once a low-cost haven for service members, veterans, and their families, USAA’s troubles suggest a company veering off course, prioritizing ideological agendas over its foundational mission.

While USAA insists its financial strength remains “outstanding,” the downgrades tell a different story. The company’s banking arm, once a steady contributor, is now a liability, dragging down its reputation and financial stability. Instead of addressing these core issues, USAA has yet to correct its path that alienates its conservative-leaning customer base — a base that, according to a 2019 Pew Research poll, leans 59 percent Republican among veterans.

This brings us to USAA’s embrace of woke ideology, a move that has dismayed some of its members. The 1792 Exchange, which evaluates companies for their risk of viewpoint discrimination, rates USAA as “high risk” for canceling clients or contracts based on political beliefs.

In 2023, USAA debanked Eastman, a former attorney for President Donald Trump, without providing a clear reason, citing only its right to close accounts at will. This wasn’t an isolated incident, but part of a broader pattern.

USAA scored a perfect 100 on the 2023 Corporate Equality Index from the queer activist group Human Rights Campaign, signaling its alignment with far-left priorities such as transgender medical subsidies for employees and their children, as well as ideological criteria in hiring, vendor selection, and philanthropy. Employees are subjected to mandatory trainings steeped in gender and sex ideology, a far cry from the military values USAA claims to uphold.

The disconnect is stark. USAA’s executive council, lacking any apparent military veterans, seems out of touch with the company’s center-right clientele. In fact, new President and CEO Juan C. Andrade is USAA’s second chief in a row without any military experience.

USAA’s drift from its military heritage mirrors a broader cultural shift within the organization, one that prioritizes left-wing activism over the needs of its members. As Daniel Cameron, CEO of the 1792 Exchange, noted last year, “USAA’s rating shows how deeply political activism has seeped into the culture of the insurance company. I suspect that most of USAA’s members would find alarming its alignment with a progressive agenda.”

Now, USAA is scrambling to repair its image with a new television ad campaign that leans heavily on patriotic imagery and a gravelly voiced narrator evoking military pride. It’s a clear attempt to win back the trust of its core demographic after years of missteps, from debanking Eastman to regulatory fines totaling more than $240 million since 2019 for issues like unfair lending practices and failure to report suspicious transactions.

This glossy rebrand rings hollow when juxtaposed with the company’s actions. USAA is close to becoming a corporate zombie, animated by its historical association with U.S. military members and veterans but rotting on the inside.