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President Trump has sued the country's largest bank, JPMorgan Chase, and its chief executive, Jamie Dimon. Trump is seeking at least $5 billion in damages, alleging the bank unfairly closed his accounts for political reasons. NPR financial correspondent Maria Aspan brings us the backstory of Trump's debanking lawsuit.
MARIA ASPAN, BYLINE: President Trump has spent years complaining that big banks have unfairly closed his accounts and those of other conservatives because they don't like his politics. Here he is on CNBC in August.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, they did discriminate. I had JPMorgan Chase. I had hundreds of millions of dollars in cash.
ASPAN: This was in 2021, Trump alleges, weeks after his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
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TRUMP: They told me, I'm sorry, sir. We can't have you. You have 20 days to get out.
ASPAN: Now Trump has sued JPMorgan Chase and CEO Jamie Dimon, who's been one of the few CEOs willing to criticize some of Trump's policies as recently as this week. Trump is calling JPMorgan woke and claims it closed his accounts for political and social motivations. He calls this debanking. Trump has also criticized Bank of America and sued Capital One over similar allegations.
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TRUMP: The banks discriminated against me very badly, and I was very good to the banks.
ASPAN: Banks say it's not that simple. Government regulators hold banks accountable for risky or illegal activities by their clients, like money laundering, but also more gray-area activities.
DAVID SEWELL: Banks and other financial institutions have to be very, very careful because they're examined continuously about the types of relationships they have.
ASPAN: David Sewell is a financial regulatory lawyer at Freshfields. I talked to him in August, right after Trump signed an executive order targeting what he called politicized or unlawful debanking.
SEWELL: Banks often feel like they're between a rock and a hard place in situations like this.
ASPAN: JPMorgan Chase alluded to this no-win situation this week. A spokesperson says that Trump's new lawsuit has no merit and that the bank doesn't close accounts for political or religious reasons. But JPMorgan says it does close accounts that create legal or regulatory risk and adds that it's up to the U.S. government to change the rules.
Maria Aspan, NPR News, New York.
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