Donald Trump threatened to sue JPMorgan Chase on Saturday, citing an unsubstantiated allegation that major banks discriminated against him after the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot.
Trump announced the potential lawsuit in a post on social media, tying the threat to his criticism of a recent Wall Street Journal article that reported he had offered the JPMorgan Chase CEO, Jamie Dimon, the position of US Federal Reserve chair. Trump insists the report is inaccurate and says no such offer was ever made.
The president also reiterated his claim that JPMorgan Chase – the largest US bank – improperly cut off his banking access after the January 6 Capitol attack, without providing evidence. He also did not provide evidence for his often-repeated false claim that the 2020 presidential election was rigged against him.
“I’ll be suing JPMorgan Chase over the next two weeks for incorrectly and inappropriately DEBANKING me after the January 6th Protest, a protest that turned out to be correct for those doing the protesting – The Election was RIGGED!” he wrote.
Trump has alleged that several banks, including JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, refused to accept his deposits following the events of 6 January 2021. Both institutions have strongly rejected those accusations.
In a statement, Dimon clarified that “there was no job offer” and said he thought things were now being handled “better than I could have” done.
A separate statement from JPMorgan Chase spokesperson Trish Wexler said: “Serving more than 80 million Americans is our privilege, and 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.”
Last week, Dimon told reporters that Trump’s attacks on the US Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, are putting central bank independence at risk and could backfire and ultimately push up interest rates and inflation.
Trump responded by defending his campaign against Powell, saying: “I think it’s fine what I’m doing. And we have a bad Fed person.”
When asked about the comments by Dimon, who warned against chipping away at the Fed’s independence, Trump said this week: “I think he’s wrong. We should have lower [interest] rates. Jamie Dimon probably wants higher rates, maybe he makes more money that way.”
Trump and his administration have come under fire in recent days for their attacks on Powell, who is facing a criminal investigation by the US Department of Justice over alleged “abuse of taxpayer dollars” linked to renovations to the central bank’s headquarters in Washington.
Powell has claimed the Fed is being targeted for not agreeing to Trump’s demands for lower interest rates. The president has claimed he was not aware of the investigation before it emerged last weekend.
Trump also took further shots at the Wall Street Journal on Saturday, stating the paper “ought to do better ‘fact checking,’ or its already strained credibility will continue to DIVE”.
Last year, Trump filed a lawsuit seeking $10bn damages against Rupert Murdoch, the Journal’s owner, along with two Journal newspaper reporters for libel and slander over claims that he sent the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein a lewd letter and sketch of a naked woman.
