Liberal journalists snickered that President Trump was off his rocker on Thursday when he accused big banks of rejecting some conservative customers, allegedly “de-banking” them because of their politics. “What in the world is he talking about?!” MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle erupted on The 11th Hour that night.
Ruhle called the President’s statement “banonkers,” a word she concocted from “bananas” and “bonkers.” Her guest, Peter Spiegel of the Financial Times, claimed Trump’s “crazy” comment had “shocked” his audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland: “We have been watching the crazy for while. Europeans and a lot of these business leaders are just seeing it for the first time, and they are shocked!”
Yet just a few hours later on Friday’s Squawk Box on CNBC, the Biden-appointed Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Rohit Chopra suggested there was something to the President’s complaint. “Here’s what’s interesting,” Chopra said. “When the CFPB put into place a policy view that banks should not be de-banking based on certain characteristics [political speech or religious views]you know, they sued us for that.”
Co-host Becky Quick interjected: “Rohit, I will tell you, every bank says they do not do that.”
Chopra shot back: “So why have they been so resistant, then, to some of the rules that make that absolutely clear?…I would certainly hope that they are not using any of those criteria at all, but it is important that the regulators make sure of that.”
Since consumers’ banking information is necessarily private, it’s practically impossible for outsiders to ascertain why someone has been dropped as a customer of one of these big banks. Still, it’s notable that an outgoing Biden administration official — still on the job as of Friday morning — showed considerably more fairness to Trump’s position than liberal journalists who are fancy themselves as objective truth-tellers.
Here are videos of the key exchanges, each followed by the relevant transcript (click “expand” to read the whole thing), starting with the liberal panel on MSNBC’s The 11th Hour on Thursday night, followed by Biden’s CFPB Director on CNBC on Friday morning:
# MSNBC’s The 11th HourJanuary 23, 2025, 11:25 pm ET
Host STEPHANIE RUHLE: I want to share something else he said that, to me, was banonkers. This one was directed at Brian Moynihan, CEO of Bank of America. Watch this:
President DONALD TRUMP: You’ve done a fantastic job, but I hope you start opening your bank to conservatives, because many conservatives complain that the banks are not allowing them to do business within the bank, and that included a place called Bank of America. This conservative — they don’t take conservative business. And I don’t know if the regulators mandated that because of Biden or what, but you and Jamie [Dimon] and everybody, I hope you’re going to open your banks to conservatives, because what you’re doing is wrong.
RUHLE: What in the world is he talking about? I mean, he said that, and JP Morgan and Bank of America then had to put out statements that said, ‘Yeah, we do business with all sorts of conservatives,’ ’cause they do. You think the Palm Beach set is putting their moneys under their mattresses? No! They bank with JP Morgan and Bank of America, I promise. What is this?
Financial Times U.S. Managing Editor PETER SPIEGEL: There is a right-wing conspiracy that is going on that there are — like the January 6th defendants, like others who have been accused of crimes — that because of American law against supporting terrorism, you can’t bank them. And so there are people who have been caught into anti-terrorism legislation, because they have backed right-wing militant groups. That is not conservatives who are not able to bank at Bank of America, and the fact that he is conflating that again, goes to — I think the word you used, bedonkers? Was that the word you used?
RUHLE: Banonkers.
SPIEGEL: Banonkers.
RUHLE: Banonkers is the official.
SPIEGEL: Look, I mean, this is again the thing that I think was really interesting about Davos today is that, we have been watching the crazy for a while. Europeans, and a lot of these business leaders, are just seeing it for the first time, and they are shocked.
# CNBC’s Squawk BoxJanuary 24, 2025, 6:44am ET
Co-host BECKY QUICK: You just mentioned the President calling some of the big banks out on their behavior. He was calling them out for refusing to bank conservatives in his, kind of, accusation on that. The banks have said that that they’re only following the rules that their regulators place on them. You think the banks are doing the wrong thing and that they’re not banking conservatives? Do you agree with that?
CFPB Director ROHIT CHOPRA: Well, here’s what’s interesting. When the CFPB put into place a policy view that banks should not be de-banking based on certain characteristics, you know, they sued us for that. Just a few weeks ago, we put into place a proposed rule that would prevent de-banking people based on political speech or religious views. So I really think that we have to make sure that what these banks are saying is actually what they’re doing. The President has also raised questions about exorbitant interest rates on credit cards. And of course, he mentioned Brian [Moynihan] and Jamie [Dimon], [the CEOs of] Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase. They have a lot of power in the credit card market and have been raising interest rates mightily, much more so than the Fed has. So, I really do think that whoever the President chooses as my successor, they are going to have, really, some issues with the banks they oversee. But, you know, that is part of the job.
Fill-in co-host ROBERT FRANK: Rohit, you just mentioned that, you know, you had taken the position that banks were unrightfully de-banking a lot of these conservative groups. What evidence do you have – ?
CHOPRA: No, no, no, what. I’m saying what I’m saying is that they should not be using those types of criteria when it comes to closing people’s accounts.
QUICK: The banks say they say – Rohit, I will tell you, every bank says they do not do that. You’re saying they do?
CHOPRA: No, so why have they been so resistant, then, to some of the rules that make that absolutely clear? We know that there’s lots of reasons why banks close accounts. I heard your discussion earlier when it was about money laundering and terrorism finance. There’s a whole host of other issues, and our analysis of this is that many of them use complex algorithms to determine who gets, uh, continues or does not continue. I would certainly hope that they are not using any of those criteria at all, but it is important that the regulators make sure of that. And you are seeing our proposed rule that we announced a few weeks ago would really make sure that that is crystal clear.
