White House Prepares Executive Order Targeting Politicized Debanking

WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump is expected to take action against “politicized or unlawful debanking” practices, building off his own experience being denied service by JPMorgan and Bank of America.

Sources with direct knowledge of the matter told the New York Post that JPMorgan and Bank of America debanked the president and his tens of millions of dollars after President Joe Biden’s administration’s pressured banking regulators and the Federal Reserve. The debanking was reportedly related to Trump’s role in the January 6 Capitol Riot, the Post reported.

Regulators “put the fear of God in you if you did business” with Trump, one JPMorgan executive told the publication.

“Think back to what it was like being Trump back in 2021,” another banking executive with direct knowledge of the matter told the Post. “He was a hot potato after January 6 and the regulators made it clear to us that we shouldn’t do business with him.”

The president addressed the topic during a news appearance earlier this week, describing how he was given only a few weeks to “get out” of JPMorgan Chase as he tried to deposit a massive sum.

“The banks discriminated against me, very badly,” the president said. “They totally discriminated against me…they went to the regulators. Banks are not afraid of anything but a regulator…they told the banking commission, the banking regulators, do everything you can to destroy Trump. And that’s what they did. And guess what, I’m president? How did that happen?”

A White House official declined to get ahead of the president on the topic.

Gabby Jones/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

A JPMorgan spokesman emphasized to The Daily Wire that the bank supports fair access to banking and does not close accounts based on someone’s religion or politics. The spokesman said that JPMorgan has long said it is an issue that requires federal leadership, which is what the Trump administration appears to be doing with its executive order.

“This is a step in the right direction,” the spokesman said. “Preventing regulatory overreach and reforming laws that have led to debanking are welcome efforts. The industry has been involved in identifying solutions to this problem for years and looks forward to continuing to work this Administration and Congress to get this right.”

Senate Republicans have raised concerns about banks weaponizing “reputational risk” as a measure to determine whether it is safe to bank figures like Trump. Republican Tim Scott of South Carolina, for example, led Banking Committee Republicans in May in introducing legislation to eliminate all references to reputational risk when assessing the safety and soundness of regulated financial institutions.

The president is not alone laying the blame at the feet of regulators. The America First Policy Institute released a white paper last week arguing that debanking is caused by “politically motivated federal regulators pressuring banks to end relationships with businesses they find ideologically objectionable.”

The group calls for Congress to consider laws requiring banking regulation be based on “financial principles, rather than subjective criteria and political judgments.”