Donald Trump has sued JPMorgan Chase and its CEO, Jamie Dimon, for at least $5bn after accusing America’s largest bank of “debanking” him.
The US president alleged that JPMorgan stopped offering him banking services in the wake of the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. Earlier this month, he claimed it had “incorrectly and inappropriately” discriminated against him.
The lawsuit was filed in Miami by Alejandro Brito, Trump’s Miami-based personal lawyer, who also has been involved in Trump’s legal action against media companies such as ABC News and the BBC for defamation.
“While we regret President Trump has sued us, we believe the suit has no merit,” JPMorgan said in a statement. “We respect the President’s right to sue us and our right to defend ourselves – that’s what courts are for.”
The bank “does not close accounts for political or religious reasons”, a spokesperson added. “We do close accounts because they create legal or regulatory risk for the company. We regret having to do so but often rules and regulatory expectations lead us to do so.”
Shares in JPMorgan slipped slightly after the filing was first reported. They were trading up 0.9% late in the afternoon session in New York.
In Thursday’s lawsuit, Trump’s lawyers alleged that JPMorgan had put Trump, the Trump Organization and its affiliated entities, along with members of Trump’s family, on a blacklist.
JPMorgan “did not provide plaintiffs with any recourse, remedy or alternative – its decision was final and unequivocal”, the lawsuit claims, claiming that Trump and the other plaintiffs are “confident that JPMC’s unilateral decision came about as a result of political and social motivations, and JPMC’s unsubstantiated, ‘woke’ beliefs that it needed to distance itself from President Trump and his conservative political reviews”.
Last weekend, Trump announced on social media that he would file a lawsuit against JPMorgan, accusing the bank of removing his accounts after the January 6 insurrection. Trump has said several banks, including JPMorgan and Bank of America, rejected his deposits after the riot, though both banks have denied the allegations.
The post seemed to be inspired by a Wall Street Journal report that Trump had offered Dimon the role of Federal Reserve chair last year. Trump denied the accusation and said he would be suing the bank.
In response to Saturday’s social media post, JPMorgan said in a statement: “We agree that no one’s account should ever be closed because of political or religious beliefs.”
“We appreciate that this administration has moved to address political debanking and we support those efforts,” the statement said.
Dimon spoke out in defense of Fed chair Jerome Powell earlier this month, after it emerged that Trump’s justice department had initiated a criminal investigation against him.
The JPMorgan CEO said he has “enormous respect for Jay Powell, the man” despite disagreement with some of the Fed’s policy choices. “Anything that chips away at [the Fed’s independence] is not a good idea,” he said, warning that it risked driving up inflation and interest rates.
In a swift response, Trump said Dimon was wrong and that “it’s fine what I’m doing.” “We should have lower rates,” Trump said last week. “Jamie Dimon probably wants higher rates, maybe he makes more money that way.”
At the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, Dimon was particularly critical of Trump’s proposal to cap credit card interest rates at 10% for the first year, calling the idea a potential “economic disaster”.
He also suggested the US had become less reliable under Trump. “If you said to me, ‘has America become unreliable?’ No,” Dimon said at an event. “It’s just, you had total reliance, and now it’s less reliable.”
Trump is one of several prominent rightwing figures to complain of having been “debanked” by leading financial institutions due to their political positions.
In the UK, NatWestGroup’s CEO, Dame Alison Rose, stood down in 2023 after she admitted being the source of an inaccurate BBC story about the reasons Reform UK leader Nigel Farage had been “debanked”. Farage threatened legal action against the bank, and later settled.
