Wall Street distances itself from Trump, GOP after chaos
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A growing number of Wall Street banks and businesses have cut ties with President Donald Trump’s campaign and financial arms, as well as the broader Republican Party, after last week insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Financial technology company Stripe has stopped processing payments for the Trump campaign, according to a person familiar with the matter who requested anonymity because the decision hasn’t been made public.
The move will cut off Trump’s fundraising arm from what has been a steady stream of smalldollar donations that are often solicited through emails and text messages. Stripe’s decision was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. In the days after the election, Trump’s campaign raised tens of millions of dollars, promising to use the money toward fighting the results of the
Nov. 3 election. That money largely appears to have gone into Trump’s broader political action committee.
American Express and Jpmorgan Chase have said they would no longer donate to candidates who supported last week’s insurrection or did not vote to confirm President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the Electoral College. Goldman Sachs is also holding back on political donations, said a source at the company familiar with the matter who is not authorized to speak publicly on it.
“Last week’s attempts by some congressional members to subvert the presi
dential election results and disrupt the peaceful transition of power do not align with our (values),” American Express CEO Steve Squeri said, in an email to
employees.
Citigroup confirmed Sunday that it is pausing all federal political donations for the first three months of the year.
In a memo to employees Friday, Citi’s head of global government affairs, Candi Wolff said “we want you to be assured that we will not support candidates who do not respect the rule of law.”
Several technology companies have clamped down on Trump, the GOP and forums that were considered avenues for violent extremism and insurrection. Twitter suspended Trump from its platform last week, as did Facebook. Social media company Parler was banned from Apple’s App Store as well as Google’s Play Store, and Amazon cut off Parler from its Amazon Web Services platform.
Shopify, an e-commerce platform for merchants to sell goods, shut down the Trump campaign’s merchandise website.