Trump Prepares to Sign EO Forbidding Political De-Banking and Imposing Penalties on Banks Who Corruptly De-Banked Citizens

Trump told CNBC that JP Morgan and Bank of America had debanked him for no reason.

JPMorgan and Bank of America "debanked" President Trump for his role in the January 6 Capitol Hill melee following pressure from the Biden administration's banking regulators and the Federal Reserve, people with direct knowledge of the matter tell The Post.

The exact reason for Trump and his tens of millions of dollars in holdings being kicked off the JPMorgan banking platform, and then denied access to Bank of America's services has yet to be reported.

But sources at the banks -- the No. 1 and No. 2 largest in the US in terms of assets -- confirmed the cause stemmed from the controversy surrounding Trump's actions that day, and threats from Biden's bank regulators that banking the former president's money put them at in danger of falling afoul of rule that prohibit financial institution from doing business with individuals and companies that present a "reputational risk."

People at the banks tell The Post that Biden's banking cops at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the FDIC and the Federal Reserve often used the nebulous nature of the edict to go beyond debanking money launderers and drug kingpins.

They were pressured to include people who have heterodox political and business ties that often included conservatives and anyone who participated in the January 6 protests.

Trump, of course, survived it all and is now in his second presidential term. He is vowing to end debanking; his regulators have stopped enforcing the reputational risk clause and he plans an executive order in the matter.

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An executive at JPMorgan said regulators "put the fear of God in you if you did business" with people like Trump.

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A Bank of America spokesman declined comment. JPMorgan said in a statement: "We don't close accounts for political reasons, and we agree with President Trump that regulatory change is desperately needed. We commend the White House for addressing this issue and look forward to working with them to get this right."

A bank rep wouldn't deny that the reputation risk edict was at the heart of its debanking of Trump.

Trump himself revealed that he was debanked Tuesday in an interview with the financial network CNBC. He said he was denied services at both institutions sometime after his first term ended in January 2021, just weeks after the storming of the Capitol building that political opponents of Trump have described as a riot and insurrection.

First he said he was booted by JPMorgan.

"I had 100s of millions. I had many, many accounts loaded up with cash. I was loaded up with cash, and they told me, 'I'm sorry, sir, we can't have you. You have 20 days to get out.' I said, 'you've got to be kidding. I've been with you for 35, 40 years.' "

Then he was denied services by Bank Of America. During the interview, he named both JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon and Brian Moynihan of Bank of America, stating both refused to come to his defense.

He said Moynihan, "was kissing my ass when I was president, and when I called him after I was president to deposit a billion dollars plus and a lot of other things, more importantly to open accounts, which banks always like . . . And he said, we can't do it."

Trump and his regulators have sought to end the practice and he's issuing an executive order imminently to end politically motivated debanking.

Here's how terrorist propaganda organization Reuters reported it:

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he believes that banks discriminate against him and his supporters, adding that Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase had previously refused to accept his deposits.

"They totally discriminate against, I think, me maybe even more, but they discriminate against many conservatives," he told CNBC in an interview. "I think the word might be Trump supporters more than conservatives."

Trump made the comments when asked about a report by the Wall Street Journal that said he planned to punish banks that discriminated against conservatives, but did not address the order specifically.

The order instructs regulators to review banks for "politicized or unlawful debanking" practices, according to a draft reviewed by Reuters.

"Well, they did discriminate," Trump said of actions taken by JPMorgan Chase after his first term in office. "I had hundreds of millions, I had many, many accounts loaded up with cash ... and they told me, 'I'm sorry sir, we can't have you. You have 20 days to get out.'"

Trump said, without providing evidence, that he believed that the banks' refusal to take his deposits indicated that the administration of former President Joe Biden had encouraged banking regulators to "destroy Trump."

Semi-related: Countries are in a "tariff panic" and scrambling for a deal before Trump's retaliatory tariffs go back into effect 12:01am Thursday (really, Wednesday just after midnight.)

Unrelated: Trump took a tour of the White House roof -- I assume, to plot future additions and modifications -- and answered questions while he was up there.

posted by Ace at 05:37 PM

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