President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the two largest American banks previously rejected him as a customer, reviving claims that conservative clients were being unfairly denied accounts.
Trump told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” in a wide-ranging interview that JPMorgan Chase informed him he had 20 days to move “hundreds of millions of dollars in cash” to another bank. He didn’t say when this happened.
The president then said he approached Bank of America to “deposit a billion dollars-plus” and was told the bank couldn’t provide him an account, Trump said.
“[Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan] said, ‘We can’t do it,'” 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.”
While Trump mentioned his business, likely referring to his real estate and hospitality conglomerate, it wasn’t clear if this episode was in reference to personal or business accounts, or both.
Trump said that he believes that large banks rejected him and his supporters because regulators during the Biden administration applied pressure to the companies.
“The banks discriminated against me very badly, and I was very good to the banks,” Trump said.
JPMorgan denied targeting conservatives or Trump supporters for de-banking.
“We don’t close accounts for political reasons, and we agree with President Trump that regulatory change is desperately needed,” a JPMorgan spokeswoman said. “We commend the White House for addressing this issue and look forward to working with them to get this right.”
A Bank of America spokesman declined to immediately comment.
This story is developing. Please check back for updates.
