White House will punish banks that discriminate against conservatives

The White House is preparing to step up pressure against big banks over perceived discrimination against conservatives and crypto companies with an executive order that threatens to fine lenders that drop customers for political reasons.

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 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.”

Trump said he subsequently tried to deposit funds with Bank of America and was also refused, and eventually split the cash among a number of smaller banks. “The banks discriminated against me very badly,” he said.

The President has already shown that he will back up his statements and take action to fight back against the entrenched left leaning institutions.