United States President Donald Trump said he believes that banks discriminate against him and his supporters, adding that Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase had previously refused to accept his deposits.
“They totally discriminate against, I think, me maybe even more, but they discriminate against many conservatives,” he told CNBC in an interview on Tuesday. “I think the word might be Trump supporters more than conservatives.”
Trump made the comments when asked about a report by the Wall Street Journal that said he planned to punish banks that discriminated against conservatives, but did not address the order specifically.
The order instructs regulators to review banks for “politicized or unlawful debanking” practices, according to a draft reviewed by the Reuters news agency.
“Well, they did discriminate,” Trump said of actions taken by JPMorgan Chase after his first term in office. “I had hundreds of millions, I had many, many accounts loaded up with cash … and they told me, ‘I’m sorry sir, we can’t have you. You have 20 days to get out.’”
Trump said, without providing evidence, that he believed that the banks’ refusal to take his deposits indicated that the administration of former US President Joe Biden had encouraged banking regulators to “destroy Trump”.
Trump said he subsequently tried to deposit funds with Bank of America and was also refused, and eventually split the cash among a number of smaller banks.
“The banks discriminated against me very badly,” he said.
In a statement, JPMorgan did not address the president’s specific claim that it had discriminated against him.
“We don’t close accounts for political reasons, and we agree with President Trump that regulatory change is desperately needed,” JPMorgan said. “We commend the White House for addressing this issue and look forward to working with them to get this right.”
Bank of America declined to comment.
‘Reputational risk’
During Biden’s administration, regulators could have asked the banks why they were providing banking services to Trump because of the “reputational risk” issue, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters news agency.
Another source said that banks were under intense scrutiny and pressure with regards to what qualified as a reputational risk for banks and they needed to be careful due to Trump’s legal entanglements.
The source also added that at present, JPMorgan continues to have a banking relationship with members of the Trump family that dates back years, and that the bank also handles a number of campaign accounts related to Trump.
After Trump took power, the Federal Reserve announced in June that it was directing its supervisors to no longer consider “reputational risk” when examining banks, scrapping a metric that had been a focus of industry complaints.
The Wall Street Journal reported late on Monday that the expected executive order would instruct regulators to investigate whether any financial institutions breach the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, antitrust laws or consumer financial protection laws by dropping customers for political reasons.
It said the order could be signed as early as this week, authorising monetary penalties, consent decrees or other disciplinary measures against violators.
The White House had no immediate comment on the reported order.
Trump in January said the CEOs of JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America denied services to conservatives. At the time, the two banks denied making banking decisions based on politics.
“This seems to be rhetoric that will likely be forgotten by lunchtime,” said David Wagner, head of equities at Aptus Capital Advisors. “I don’t see any material impact on banks, as there are many other drivers that will ultimately presage performance for banks, such as deregulation.”
Both banks’ stocks are taking a hit on Wall Street. As of 11am in New York (15:00 GMT), JP MorganChase is down 1.6 percent and Bank of America is down 1.4 percent. While Wells Fargo was not named in particular, the competing financial institution’s stock is down 1.3 percent as well.
Markets respond
Banks have consistently argued that any complaints about “debanking” should be aimed at regulators, as they argue that onerous rules and bank supervisors policing firms can discourage them from engaging in certain activities.
“The heart of the problem is regulatory overreach and supervisory discretion,” the Bank Policy Institute, an industry group, said in a statement.
“The banking agencies have already taken steps to address issues like reputational risk, and we’re hopeful that any forthcoming executive order will reinforce this progress by directing regulators to confront the flawed regulatory framework that gave rise to these concerns in the first place.”
In January, Trump claimed that Bank of America was debanking conservatives in a Q&A session at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland with Bank of America CEO, Brian Moynihan.
“I hope you start opening your bank to conservatives, because many conservatives complain that the banks are not allowing them to do business within the bank, and that included a place called Bank of America,” Trump said at the time.
Separately, in March, the Trump Organization, a holding company for the Trump family’s business ventures, sued Capital One Financial for closing accounts for what the Trump Organization alleged were political reasons.
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2025/8/5/trump-accuses-banks-of-discriminating-against-his-supporters?traffic_source=rss
