German Banking Giant Deutsche Bank Cuts Ties with President Trump: Report
Deutsche Bank AG has reportedly decided to cut ties with President Donald Trump as well as his private companies following the unrest at Capitol Hill last week.
The German lender has been joined by the New York-based Signature Bank, which also announced that it would be ending its business relationship with the President.
Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday that two insiders within Deutsche Bank — who remained anonymous ostensibly due to banking regulations — confirmed that the German banking giant would no longer conduct any further business with President Trump or his company.
There will still be some relationship between the bank and the President, however, as he reportedly owes Deutsche Bank some $340 million in outstanding loans. The bank has served as a lender for President Trump since the 1990s and has lent some $2 billion during their business relationship.
The day after the events at the Capitol, the head of Deutsche Bank Americas, Christiana Riley wrote on LinkedIn: “Yesterday was a dark day for America and our democracy.”
“We are proud of our Constitution and stand by those who seek to uphold it to ensure that the will of the people is upheld and a peaceful transition of power takes place,” she added.
Ahead of the presidential election, Reuters reported that the bank was “eager” to sever ties with the president, after being caught up in the Russia collusion narrative for years and being forced to testify in congressional hearings during the probe.
Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren — who serves on the Senate’s banking committee — said in November that she planned on continuing investigating the bank into the upcoming administration.
“You bet I’m going to continue to fight for accountability and strong enforcement of our banking laws, especially for giant institutions like Deutsche Bank,” she said.
Big corporations strike to unbank the right! Wall Street banks freeze political donations, threaten pro-Trump politicians with blacklisting! https://t.co/vcqQcW0NvN
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) January 12, 2021
On Monday, New York lender Signature Bank said that it would be closing two of President Trump’s personal accounts which hold some $5.3 million.
The bank also called for the president to resign before the end of his term, saying in a statement: “We believe the appropriate action would be the resignation of the president of the United States, which is in the best interests of our nation and the American people.”
“We have never before commented on any political matter and hope to never do so again,” the bank added.
According to UK’s Daily Telegraph, a spokesman for Deutsche Bank also said that it will refuse to do any business with members of Congress who backed the president in his fight against the certification of the electoral college vote.
The move by the two banks comes after the announcement from the online payment processor Stripe that it would be blacklisting the Trump campaign from its services, preventing the movement from accepting donations via credit card.
Nine big tech companies have also banned or restricted the President of the United States from operating on their platforms, including Twitter, Google, Apple, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, Pinterest, Shopify, Reddit, TikTok, Twitch, and Discord.
Facebook has joined with big banks and other major corporations who are halting political spending following last week’s riot on Capitol Hill. https://t.co/O1c7hTZo4f
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) January 12, 2021
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Wall Street Banks Freeze Political Donations After Capitol Hill Riots, Threaten Pro-Trump Politicians with Blacklisting
Wall Street is slamming the lid shut on the coffers of its corporate political action committees and threatening pro-Trump politicians on Capitol Hill with blacklisting.
Following a week in which major social media companies cut of President Donald Trump and began excluding some of his biggest advocates in the wake of the Capitol Hill riot, some of the nation’s largest financial institutions have announced that they are halting donations to their political action committees and considering permanently cutting off politicians accused of attempting to “overturn” the 2020 election.
J.P. Morgan Chase, the nation’s biggest bank by assets and market capitalization, said it is halting donations through its PAC for six months. Citigroup, the third-largest U.S. bank by assets, is reportedly pressing pause on political donations for the first quarter of 2020.
Goldman Sachs put the kibosh on donations pending a review of “how people acted during this period,” according to the New York Times, with the likely result that it will exclude Republican politicians who challenged the 2020 election results. Morgan Stanley also said it is stopping political contributions. It is considering withdrawing support for any politicians who voted against certifying Joe Biden’s electoral college win.
Bank of American and Wells Fargo are still considering their response but are likely to follow the path chosen by their competitors.
Typically, bank contributions to political action committees and politicians are considered by the Americana public some of the worst intersections of money and politics. The current situation has given the banks a rare opportunity to pose as do-gooders, even while implicitly pressuring politicians to win back their favor by adopting pro-Wall Street stances.
Corporate America is also freezing donations. So far, Marriott, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Boston Scientific have said they will close their political purse strings.
The reaction to the Capitol Hill riot by supporters of President Trump stands in stark contrast to the response of banks and corporations to the Black Lives Matter anti-police riots and protests of last year. In response to those events, corporations pledged over a billion in support of Black Lives Matter and related causes.
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