President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the two largest American banks previously rejected him as a customer, reviving claims that conservative clients were being unfairly denied accounts.
Trump told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” in a wide-ranging interview that JPMorgan Chase informed him he had 20 days to move “hundreds of millions of dollars in cash” to another bank. He didn’t say when this happened.
The president said he then approached Bank of America to “deposit a billion dollars-plus” and was told the bank couldn’t provide him an account, Trump said.
“[Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan] said, ‘We can’t do it,'” Trump said. “So I went to another one, another one, another one. I ended up going to small banks all over the place. I mean, I was putting $10 million here, $10 million there.”
Shares of the two banks dipped less than 1% in morning trading.
Some conservatives, crypto executives and religious organizations have claimed to be unfairly “de-banked” by large U.S. financial institutions. In their defense, banks say that they are required to comply with federal laws aimed at preventing financial crimes, including the 1970 Bank Secrecy Act, and have faced regulatory pressure related to crypto and other industries considered higher risk for money laundering or fraud.
The topic came up again in January, when Trump accused Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan of denying services to conservative customers.
Banks in a bind
The issue puts banks in a bind; the companies risk further angering the president as he airs grievances that resonate with his supporters. At the same time, banks have been a major beneficiary of the Trump administration’s efforts to roll back Biden-era regulatory rules across a wide swath of financial activities.
The Trump administration is preparing an executive order that threatens the industry with fines if they drop customers on political grounds, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. A draft version of the order asks regulators to investigate whether banks violated laws, according to the Journal.
While Trump on Tuesday mentioned his business, likely referring to his real estate and hospitality conglomerate, it wasn’t clear if this episode was in reference to personal or business accounts, or both.
“The banks discriminated against me very badly, and I was very good to the banks,” Trump said.
Trump said that he believes that banks rejected him and his supporters because regulators during the Biden administration applied pressure to the companies.
In a March lawsuit filed against Capital One, the president’s company alleged that the bank improperly closed more than 300 accounts a few months after the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol. The bank denied the accusations.
JPMorgan denied targeting conservatives or Trump supporters for de-banking.
“We don’t close accounts for political reasons, and we agree with President Trump that regulatory change is desperately needed,” a JPMorgan spokeswoman said. “We commend the White House for addressing this issue and look forward to working with them to get this right.”
A Bank of America spokesman declined to immediately comment.