The White House is preparing an executive order targeting banks that discriminate against customers based on political views, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The drafted executive order would direct officials to investigate whether any banks have violated federal law by canceling conservative customers, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing a draft copy it obtained. President Donald Trump could sign the order within the week if plans do not change, according to sources who spoke to the outlet.
The White House declined to comment to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The news broke the same morning that Trump complained in a CNBC interview that two major banks had refused to do business with him, though the president did not say when these alleged disputes happened. JPMorgan Chase once told Trump that he had 20 days to move “hundreds of millions of dollars in cash” to another institution, while Bank of America told him he could not open an account to deposit over a billion dollars, he claimed.
“We don’t close accounts for political reasons, and we agree with President Trump that regulatory change is desperately needed,” a JPMorgan spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “We’re pleased to see the White House is addressing this issue, for which we’ve been advocating for many years, and look forward to working with them to get this right.”
Bank of America declined to comment on Trump’s specific allegations but similarly praised his regulatory push.
“We welcome the Trump administration’s efforts to provide regulatory clarity to banks,” Bank of America told the DCNF. “We’ve provided detailed proposals and will continue to work with the administration and Congress to improve the regulatory framework.”
Republican state attorneys general have previously accused major financial firms of “debanking,” a term for cancelling conservative customers over their viewpoints.
John Eastman, a former attorney for Trump, told the Daily Caller in April 2024 that he was de-banked by two major institutions twice over several months after he drew controversy for advising Trump on 2020 election challenges. Citigroup also previously came under fire for restricting services for gun businesses before ending the policy in June.
Investor Marc Andreessen claimed in a November 2024 interview that financial institutions were frequently debanking “political enemies” and “disfavored tech startups” involved in cryptocurrency. He told podcast host Joe Rogan that he knew of 30 crypto founders who were debanked over the preceding four years.
Trump’s drafted executive order says banks guilty of political discrimination could face fines, consent decrees or other consequences, The Wall Street Journal reported. As an example, the order reportedly describes an incident when Bank of America shut down the accounts of a Christian group operating in Uganda. Bank of America has said that it cancelled the accounts because the group was operating outside the U.S., according to The Wall Street Journal.
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