Trump says two banks rejected him because of his conservative leanings

President Trump said two American banks once refused to accept him as a customer, making his comment Tuesday as he prepares an executive order that would punish such institutions for discrimination against conservatives.

Mr. Trump said JPMorgan Chase told him he had 20 days to move “hundreds of millions of dollars in cash” to another bank. He said he went to Bank of America with the funds and was told it couldn’t provide an account for him to “deposit a billion dollars plus.”

“[Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan] said, ’We can’t do it,’” Mr. Trump said. “So I went to another one, another one, another one. I ended up going to small banks all over the place. I mean, I was putting $10 million here, $10 million there.”

He added, “The banks discriminated against me very badly, and I was very good to the banks.”

Mr. Trump made the comments in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” but didn’t say when the alleged rejections happened. It was also unclear if he was talking about personal or business accounts.

Patricia Wexler, a spokeswoman for JPMorgan Chase, said the bank doesn’t “close accounts for political reasons.” 

“We agree with President Trump that regulatory change is desperately needed. 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,” she said, referencing some of the financial industry overhauls proposed by the Trump administration. 

A Bank of America spokesperson said it doesn’t have a comment on Mr. Trump’s allegation but that it welcomes his “efforts to provide regulatory clarity to banks.”

It’s not the first time a member of the Trump family has commented on unfair treatment from financial institutions.

Lara Trump, in an interview for the book “Lawless Lawfare,” said the family had a difficult time getting a mortgage during her father-in-law’s legal battles during the 2024 election campaign, when Mr. Trump faced at least four indictments. 

Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, said insurance agencies also dropped the family.

“The de-banking, the de-insurance, the de-everything. It was rough,” he said in an interview with the book’s author, Alex Swoyer of The Washington Times, on his podcast “Triggered.”

The president’s remarks come as Mr. Trump is drafting an executive order that directs bank regulators to investigate whether financial institutions might have violated the Equal Credit Opportunity Act or consumer financial protection laws by barring conservatives from opening accounts.

Violators could be subject to monetary penalties, consent decrees or other disciplinary measures, according to a copy of the draft viewed by The Wall Street Journal. The order is expected to be signed later this week.

In 2023, Bank of America was accused of shutting down the accounts of a Christian organization operating in Uganda based on the organization’s religious beliefs. The bank said it closed the accounts because it doesn’t serve small businesses operating outside the U.S.

Trump said he believes banks rejected him and his supporters because regulators during the Biden administration applied pressure to the companies.

Financial institutions don’t want to risk angering the president as he targets industries that he believes have been unfair to him and conservatives. And banks have benefited from Mr. Trump’s efforts to roll back Biden-era regulatory rules across the financial sector.

• Alex Swoyer contributed to this report.