CHARLOTTE, NC (AP) – A growing number of banks and Wall Street companies have cut ties with President Donald Trump’s campaign and financial arms, as well as with the Republican Party in general, after last week’s Capitol riots and upheavals from the USA.
Financial technology firm Stripe has stopped processing payments for the Trump campaign, according to a person familiar with the matter who requested anonymity because the decision was not made public.
The move will cut Trump’s fundraising arm from what has been a steady stream of small-dollar 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, the Trump campaign raised tens of millions of dollars promising to use the money to fight the election results. That money appears to have largely gone to Trump’s broader political action committee.
American Express and JPMorgan Chase said they would no longer donate to candidates who supported last week’s uprising or did not vote to confirm President-elect Joe Biden’s victory at the Electoral College. Goldman Sachs is also avoiding political donations, said a company source familiar with the matter, which is not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
“Last week’s attempts by some members of Congress to subvert the results of the presidential elections and interrupt the peaceful transition of power do not align with ours (values),” said American Express CEO Steve Squeri in an e- mail to employees.
Citigroup confirmed on Sunday that it is suspending all federal political donations for the first three months of the year.
In a memo to employees on Friday, Citi’s head of global government affairs, Candi Wolff, said “we want you to be sure that we will not support candidates who do not respect the rule of law”.
Several tech companies have cracked down on President Trump, the Republican Party and other forums that have been considered avenues for violent extremism and insurrection. Twitter suspended Trump from his platform, as did Facebook last week. Social media company Parler has been banned from Apple’s App Store as well as Google’s Play Store, and Amazon has removed Parler from its Amazon Web Services platform.
Shopify, an e-commerce platform for merchants to sell goods, also closed the Trump campaign merchandise site.