Two major banks to close Donald Trump’s accounts

The events on Capitol Hill will have long-term consequences for Donald Trump. Already banned from Twitter, suspended by Facebook and now YouTube, while abandoned by several members of his party, the outgoing president faces sanctions from at least two major banks. Deutsche Bank has cut all ties with him, reported the New York Times. Accusing him of stirring up hatred, the German bank decided to no longer have any financial ties to him or any of his companies, as have many other large corporations, such as hotel giant Marriott International or the insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield.

In the aftermath of the Capitol breach, the head of the American subsidiary of Deutsche Bank, Christiana Riley, had already severely condemned the supporters of Donald Trump, denouncing “a dark day for America and [its] democracy”.

“Violence has no place in our society and the scenes which have taken place are a shame for the whole nation,” she added. To mark its disapproval, the German bank has therefore decided to cut ties with the outgoing president. But it remains the biggest creditor of the Trump Organization, the billionaire’s conglomerate run by his two sons, which still owes the bank $ 340 million in loans for a golf course in Miami and hotels in Washington and Chicago.

In addition to Deutsche Bank, Signature Bank, where Ivanka Trump, daughter of the outgoing president once served on the board, has also decided to distance itself from Trump. Two of Donald Trump’s personal accounts, representing an amount of approximately $ 5,3 million, could even be closed soon, according to information from the New York Times. The New York establishment also promised not to collaborate with any member of Congress who voted against the certification of the election. Susan Turkell, a spokeswoman for the bank, said Signature had decided that it “will not do business in the future with any members of Congress who voted to disregard the Electoral College.”

The JPMorgan Chase bank had already announced the day before that it was temporarily suspending all donations to American politicians, both Republican and Democrat.

Ironically, Trump has recently signed an executive order banning the use of Chinese payment apps. Thus American conservatives, banned from PayPal and Stripe like Trump’s campaign, now no longer have the option of moving to a more welcoming platform. In November 2020, the Trump administration had proposed rules to ensure that banking access would be determined only by creditworthiness and not political views.

“If the Trump administration finalizes the rule before President-elect Joe Biden takes office, that would make it harder, but not impossible, for the new administration to undo it,” said John Court, the head of regulatory affairs at the Bank Policy Institute, which represents the biggest banks in the country. NPR reported that banks would likely sue to try and stop such a rule. “The rule could also be scrapped by Congress through an oversight tool called the Congressional Review Act, especially since Democrats will now control both the House and the Senate,” Courts added.

The PGA golf association has also distanced themselves from Trump. In 2022 he will not hold a tournament at the National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, which is owned by the Republican. “We are in a political situation. We felt that we couldn’t hold Bedminster any longer,” PGA boss Seth Waugh told the AP news agency. “The damage could have been irreparable. The only course of action was to go.”

But golf isn’t the only sport that Trump is facing headwinds from. The famous American football coach Bill Belichick of the NFL team New England Patriots rejected the award of the medal of freedom by the president. On Monday, he said the events on the Capitol was decisive for him to reject the honor. The medal is awarded to people who have made a special contribution to the United States in cultural matters, to national security or to world peace. Belichick was previously considered a friend of Trump. In the election campaign for the 2016 election, he still supported Trump.

Meanwhile, the support of the Californian punk band Dead Kennedys for the FBI caused a sensation on social media. The music band shared the federal police’s search call on Twitter to identify the people who had broken into the Capitol.