President Donald Trump chewed out Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan Thursday over the company’s alleged “debanking” of conservatives for their political beliefs during a speech at the World Economic Forum.
Bank of America has come under fire for closing bank accounts of conservatives, including constitutional law professor John Eastman and for turning over customer data to the FBI in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol building. Moynihan, who was attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, asked Trump about inflation after the president delivered remarks in a video appearance.
“By the way, speaking of you and you’ve done a fantastic job, but I hope you start opening your bank to conservatives because many conservatives complained that the banks are not allowing them to do business within the bank and that included a place called Bank of America,” Trump said. “They don’t take conservative business and I don’t know if regulators mandated that because of Biden or what, but you and [J.P. Morgan Chase CEO] Jamie [Dimon] and everybody, I hope you will open your banks to conservatives, because what you are doing is wrong.”
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Bank of America allegedly closed Eastman’s accounts while he faced disciplinary proceedings in California over his legal advice to Trump during his efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 election. The bank also closed the account of Indigenous Advance Ministries in 2023, allegedly refusing to explain why.
“We serve more than 70 million clients, and we welcome conservatives,” a spokesperson for Bank of America told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “We are required to follow extensive government rules and regulations that sometimes result in decisions to exit client relationships. We never close accounts for political reasons and don’t have a political litmus test.”
J.P. Morgan Chase closed the account of the National Committee for Religious Freedom, an organization led by former Ambassador Sam Brownback, in 2022, demanding that the group disclose its donors.
“We have never and would never close an account for political reasons, full stop,” a spokesperson for JP Morgan Chase told the DCNF. “We follow the law and guidance from our regulators and have long said there are problems with the current framework that Washington must address. We welcome the opportunity to work with the new Administration and Congress on ways to remove regulatory ambiguity while maintaining our country’s ability to address financial crime.”
First lady Melania Trump wrote in her memoir that she and her son Barron were debanked, but she did not name the institution that closed her accounts.
The House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government subpoenaed Bank of America for records pertaining to its decision to hand over information on purchases in the D.C. area around the time of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol building.
Florida and Tennessee passed laws prohibiting banks from closing bank accounts on the basis of political or religious beliefs in 2024, according to Politico. Fifteen Republican state attorneys general sent Bank of America a letter warning it against religious discrimination over the alleged “debanking” in April 2024, Fox News reported.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for specific examples of “debanking” from the DCNF.
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