Trump says major banks ‘discriminated’ against him

President Donald Trump accused two of the nation’s largest banks of unfairly cutting ties with him, just as his administration was preparing an executive order aimed at financial institutions accused of discriminating against customers on ideological grounds. “The banks discriminated against me very badly,” Trump said in an interview with CNBC.

Donald Trump

According to Trump, JPMorgan Chase & Co. ordered him to close accounts he had maintained for decades within 20 days. He also claimed Bank of America Corp. refused to accept more than $1 billion in deposits. “I ended up going to small banks all over the place,” he said. Trump alleged that regulators under President Joe Biden had pressured financial institutions to target him. “Banks are not afraid of anything but a regulator — their regulators and their wives,” he added.

Trump vs. banks

While Trump did not provide exact dates for his dealings with JPMorgan and Bank of America, he suggested the latter occurred between his two presidential terms. The accusations come as Trump continues to fight legal challenges. In 2024, he was found liable in New York’s civil fraud suit, resulting in a three-year ban preventing the Trump Organization from securing loans from New York-chartered banks. He has since appealed the verdict in Manhattan.

Executive order

Trump was also asked about a The Wall Street Journal report detailing a draft executive order under his administration that would require regulators to investigate whether financial institutions violated federal law by closing certain accounts. The draft order, circulated among industry participants, outlined a 120-day review process for banks to justify their decisions to close customer accounts, according to people familiar with the matter. Regulators would also undergo their own 120- to 180-day review to determine how their oversight practices may have influenced those closures. Any criminal findings resulting from the reviews would be referred to the Department of Justice. A final version of the order was expected later that week, though sources cautioned both timing and details could change.

Political influence

Both JPMorgan and Bank of America have previously denied that politics influenced their business decisions. “We don’t close accounts for political reasons, and we agree with President Trump that regulatory change is desperately needed,” said Trish Wexler, a JPMorgan spokesperson. “We commend the White House for addressing this issue and look forward to working with them to get this right.” Bank of America Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan echoed that sentiment in his own CNBC interview, suggesting the problem lies in industry regulations. “Trump is after the right thing — which is the laws, rules and regulations around our industry,” Moynihan said. “It is right to go look at these rules because, at the end of the day, they are causing decisions to be made that can be looked at in retrospect and be made differently. We should get these rules right.” The Bank Policy Institute, representing leading financial firms, also backed revisiting regulations, saying the current framework needs to be reworked.

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