In Davos Speech, Trump Urges Banks to End Discrimination Against Conservatives

President Donald Trump is shown on a screen during his address by video conference to the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 23, 2025. Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images

President Donald Trump, speaking by video link to attendees of the World Economic Forum annual summit in Davos, Switzerland, castigated large banks for their alleged refusal to serve a number of conservative individuals and organizations. 

Addressing, in particular, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon on Jan. 22, Trump urged them to end political discrimination at their banks.

“I hope you start opening your bank to conservatives, because many conservatives complain that the banks are not allowing them to do business within the bank, and that included a place called Bank of America,” Trump told Moynihan. “I don’t know if the regulators mandated that, because of Biden or what, but you and Jamie [Dimon, JPMorgan Chase CEO] and everybody, I hope you open your banks to conservatives, because what you’re doing is wrong.”

Last year, an investor group led by fund manager David Bahnsen pressed JPMorgan Chase to take action against political de-banking, following accusations that, among other things, its subsidiary WePay had abruptly closed accounts and refused service in 2021 for a Defense of Liberty conference featuring Donald Trump, Jr. 

JPMorgan Chase subsequently reversed the decision by WePay. 

Both Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase refuted charges of political bias.

“We serve more than 70 million clients and we welcome conservatives,” Bank of America spokesperson William Halldin told The Epoch Times. “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.”

JPMorgan issued a statement to The Epoch Times that “we have never and would never close an account for political reasons, full stop.”

In April 2024, 15 state attorneys general issued a letter to Bank of America, charging that the bank “appears to be conditioning access to its services on customers having the bank’s preferred religious or political views.”

The attorneys general charged that the bank employed ambiguous criteria to terminate banking relationships, such as reputational risk and allegations of promoting “intolerance” or “hate.”

“In the past, Bank of America has denied services to gun manufacturers, distributors, and sellers; fossil-fuel producers; contractors for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; and private prisons and related services,” the attorneys general wrote. “It recently made headlines for cooperating with the FBI and U.S. Treasury to profile conservative and religious Americans as potential domestic terrorists.”

That same month, the state of Tennessee passed one of the first-ever laws prohibiting banks and insurance companies from political or religious discrimination against state residents. 

“It’s un-American to deny basic financial services to people based on political and religious beliefs,” Jeremy Tedesco, senior vice president of corporate engagement at the Alliance Defending Freedom, told The Epoch Times.

“Discriminatory debanking creates real victims,” he said. “It’s highly encouraging that President Trump is prioritizing de-banking, and it’s not surprising, given the victims of de-banking in his own family.” 

Both Trump and his wife have said that they were refused banking services over the past several years, charging that this was on political grounds. 

Bank United in Florida closed Trump’s accounts in 2021, stating that “we no longer have any depository relationship with him.” Professional Bank, another Florida bank, also closed Trump’s accounts at the same time. 

Signature Bank and Deutsche Bank in New York also ended their relationship with Trump following the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Writing in her autobiography, “Melania,” the first lady stated that both she and their son Barron were denied banking services at this time. 

“I was shocked and dismayed to learn that my long-time bank decided to terminate my account and deny my son the opportunity to open a new one,” Melania wrote.

Tedesco said banks have often canceled accounts “without providing an adequate reason for doing so.”

“Worse, we’ve also seen big banks colluding with the federal government to target political opponents,” he said. 

“The U.S. Department of Treasury’s FinCEN unit even shared a list of ‘hate groups’ with major banks that associated mainstream conservative groups like ADF with ‘domestic terrorists,’” he said.

Marc Andreessen, a venture capitalist and advisor to Trump, said that banks had a category called “politically exposed persons” (PEP). 

“If you’re a PEP, you [banks] are required by financial regulators to kick them out of your bank,” Andreessen told Joe Rogan on a November 2024 podcast. Andreessen said the category seemed to apply exclusively to conservatives.

“I have not heard of a single instance of anybody on the left getting debanked,” he said.

Responding to the accusation on a subsequent podcast called The Unshakeables, Dimon stated, “We have not de-banked anyone because of political or religious relationships—period.” 

He added that he had contacted Andreessen to talk over the issues he raised.

“Where Marc is right is all these examples where they put a lot of pressure on us and they tell us what is high risk, and if we don’t de-bank someone and something goes wrong, we can pay hundreds of millions dollars of fines,” Dimon stated. “So, a lot of banks are guessing like, ‘We should get rid of these people because we don’t get rid of them, we‘ll be fined.’ And you’ve seen that over and over and over.”