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Donald Trump has accused JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America of turning away his business, escalating rightwing claims that the industry has denied service to conservatives for political reasons.
Speaking on CNBC on Tuesday and seemingly referring to the period after he first left the White House in 2021, Trump said he was informed by JPMorgan that it was closing his accounts.
“I was loaded up with cash and they told me, ‘I’m sorry, sir, we can’t have you. You have 20 days to get out’. I said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding. I’ve been with you for 35, 40 years’,” said the US president.
Trump said he then tried to open an account with Bank of America, and spoke directly to chief executive Brian Moynihan, but they refused his business.
“Brian was kissing my ass when I was president,” Trump said.
“And he said, ‘We can’t do it. No, we can’t do it’. So I went to another one, another one, another one. I ended up going to small banks all over the place,” Trump added. He also had a long-standing relationship with Deutsche Bank.
In recent years, conservatives and some prominent tech investors have claimed US banks discriminated against them for their political views, as well as against industries that regulators disapproved of, such as cryptocurrency and oil. In her memoir, first lady Melania Trump complained her bank terminated her account after the January 6 2021 Capitol attack in 2021, and declined to open one for her son Barron.
Banks claim they do not discourage for political reasons and point to the burden of compliance costs for clients classified as “politically exposed people”, as well as the added regulatory oversight around any crypto business.
In response to Trump’s comments, JPMorgan, the largest US bank by assets and deposits, said: “We don’t close accounts for political reasons, and we agree with President Trump that regulatory change is desperately needed. We commend the White House for addressing this issue and look forward to working with them to get this right.”
Asked about it in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday, Moynihan refrained from disputing Trump’s claims and said the US president was “after the right thing”.
“It is right to go look at these rules because at the end of day, they are causing decisions to be made that can be looked at in retrospect and made differently.”
The White House did not respond to a request for additional comment.
The Wall Street Journal on Monday reported the White House is preparing an executive order that would instruct regulators to probe banks that unlawfully discriminate against customers.
The Bank Policy Institute, an industry lobby group, said the “heart of the problem is regulatory over-reach and supervisory discretion” and that it hoped any forthcoming executive order would direct “regulators to confront the flawed regulatory framework that gave rise to these concerns in the first place”.
Additional reporting by Akila Quinio and James Politi
