Trump Says Banks Shouldn’t Refuse to Do Business With Conservatives

President Donald Trump said Thursday (Jan. 23) that he has heard complaints from conservatives that Bank of America and other banks will not do business with them.

Addressing the World Economic Forum via teleconference and responding to a question from Bank of America Chair and CEO Brian Moynihan, Trump said, according to remarks posted by the White House, “I hope you start opening your bank to conservatives, because many conservatives complain that the banks are not allowing them to do business with the bank, and that included a place called Bank of America.”

After wondering if regulators required banks to stop taking conservative business during the Biden administration, Trump said: “I hope you’re going to open your banks to conservatives, because what you’re doing is wrong.”

Moynihan did not address Trump’s claim in the published remarks, instead thanking Trump for bringing the World Cup to the U.S. and noting that Bank of America is sponsoring the event.

Reached by PYMNTS, a Bank of America spokesperson said in an emailed statement that the bank serves more than 70 million clients and welcomes conservatives.

“We are required to follow extensive government rules and regulations that sometimes result in decisions to exit client relationships,” the statement said. “We never close accounts for political reasons and don’t have a political litmus test.”

A Dec. 31 opinion piece published in the Financial Times (FT) noted that there is a debate about “debanking” in the financial world, with people like venture capitalist Marc Andreessen arguing that banks are cutting ties with customers on the political right or with industries such as the cryptocurrency sector.

The second Trump administration could likely take action on the issue, the FT’s Joshua Franklin wrote in the piece.

Andreessen alleged during a December appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast that the FinTech and crypto sectors — and dozens of companies backed by his namesake firm, Andreessen Horowitz — were being debanked by U.S. financial institutions.

Elon Musk shared Andreessen’s remarks in a post on X, linking to a clip of the podcast and commenting, “Did you know that 30 tech founders were secretly debanked?”