Trump Says Jpmorgan, Bank Of America Rejected His Deposits

President Donald Trump on Tuesday went after the nation’s biggest banks, accusing them of discriminating against him in recent years as his administration weighs options for cracking down on perceived bias against conservatives in the financial system.

Trump said in an interview on CNBC that JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and others refused to accept more than $1 billion of his deposits. Trump said he eventually had to spread his cash across small banks “all over the place.”

“The banks discriminated against me very badly,” Trump said, reviving his criticism that large Wall Street banks had “debanked” conservatives for political reasons. On the campaign trail in 2024, Trump vowed to crack down on the practice and earlier this year publicly scolded Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan over the issue.

Trump’s latest comments come as his administration is considering an executive order on “debanking” that directs banking regulators to address any politically motivated account closures. The Wall Street Journal first reported the policy, which could be unveiled this week.

A new White House order would add to other recent Republican efforts to address “debanking.” Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee advanced a bill earlier this year that would prohibit financial regulators from using "reputational risk" in their supervision of financial institutions. That would largely enshrine in law what federal banking regulators, at the urging of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, have already done in recent months. And the Trump administration has already announced it plans to “modernize” the regulations governing banks’ obligations under laws to curb money laundering and terrorist financing.

A White House spokesperson declined to comment further about the executive order and referred to Trump’s comments about the big banks.

During the interview, Trump said JPMorgan Chase notified him that they would be closing his longstanding accounts within 20 days, and that Bank of America subsequently refused his business after his first term in office.

Trump also claimed, without offering any specific evidence, that the Biden administration had pressured banking regulators to “do everything you can to destroy Trump.”

The Trump Organization earlier this year sued Capital One, accusing the bank of improperly cutting off access to the president’s family business in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. The bank denies the allegations and has asked a federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit.

The banking industry broadly insists it doesn’t close accounts for political reasons. And industry officials argue that regulatory policies aimed at preventing illicit financial transactions and managing reputation risk can result in customers being cut off without explanation.

“We don’t close accounts for political reasons, and we agree with President Trump that regulatory change is desperately needed,” JPMorgan Chase spokesperson Trish Wexler said in a statement. “We commend the White House for addressing this issue and look forward to working with them to get this right.”

Bank of America spokesperson Bill Halldin said the bank was supportive of the “Trump administration’s efforts to provide regulatory clarity to banks.”

Later Tuesday, Moynihan said that his bank and others in the industry were working with the Treasury Department and Trump administration to address regulations and policies that he suggested were the cause of some account closures.

“I welcome getting this fixed,” Moynihan said. “At the end of the day, we bank 70 million consumers, more small businesses than anybody else — 12 million small businesses — more middle market companies than anybody else. We bank everybody.”

Conservatives have long accused Wall Street banks of targeting right-leaning religious groups and conservative-aligned industries, such as oil and gas companies and gun manufacturers. Some Republican-led states have passed laws to prevent banks from refusing business from certain industries or engaging in any political discrimination.

Cryptocurrency companies have more recently said that the Biden administration’s regulatory scrutiny of the sector at the federal level effectively cut off many digital assets firms from the banking system.

“The heart of the problem is regulatory overreach and supervisory discretion,” a spokesperson for the Bank Policy Institute, which represents large banks, 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.”