Biden admin pressured banks to cut ties with Trump over J6: report

New details have emerged about actions taken to “debank” President Donald Trump following January 6, 2021, reportedly under pressure from Biden administration regulators.

Trump recently criticized JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, saying in an interview with CNBC that JPMorgan Chase gave him 20 days to move “hundreds of millions of dollars in cash” to a different bank, and that when he approached Bank of America to “deposit a billion dollars-plus,” the bank declined. However, according to a New York Post report, at least 10 other financial institutions also cut ties with Trump in the months after he left office in 2021.

The Post reported that bank officials claimed the Biden administration’s financial regulators, including the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the FDIC, and the Federal Reserve, used “reputational risk” rules to push a political agenda. The officials alleged that regulators applied pressure to avoid doing business with industries and individuals viewed unfavorably by the administration, including cryptocurrency firms, gun-related businesses, certain conservative religious organizations, and especially Trump’s multibillion-dollar real estate and resort operations.

While there was no explicit written order to cancel Trump from financial institutions, the banks say that the pressure was still present. 

“Such an effort isn’t easy to prove because there’s no direct smoking gun, no memo (at least not yet) telling banks to cancel Trump from their system. The banks say the pressure was more subtle but still real: Failure to remove Trump or crypto types and others would result in heightened enforcement, ­harassment and possibly fines. The banks decided to drop customers, even rich ones like Trump, because it wasn’t worth the hassle,” the Post reported.

Back in March, Trump’s company filed a lawsuit against Capital One, alleging that the bank closed over 300 accounts without an explicit reason. Capital One denied claims that it had closed Trump-linked accounts over political motivations.

Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to address allegations of debanking. The White House said the order is aimed at ensuring “Federal regulators do not promote policies and practices that allow financial institutions to deny or restrict services based on political beliefs, religious beliefs, or lawful business activities, ensuring fair access to banking for all Americans.”