Ex-President Donald Trump can no longer rely on the services of two Florida banks after the institutions announced that they’d be doing no new business with the former president amidst nationwide outrage over the recent rioting at the U.S. Capitol. The Florida banks who’ve moved to end their relationship with the former president include BankUnited and Professional Bank, both of which are in the Miami area. On Friday, BankUnited — where Trump had two money market accounts worth a combined over $5.1 million — announced that they “never had a lending relationship with Donald Trump and… no longer have any depository relationship with him.” Meanwhile, Professional Bank issued a similar announcement last week.
Unlike BankUnited, Professional Bank did have a lending relationship with the former president after they loaned the Trump family $11.2 million during Trump’s presidency to support the purchase of a property in the vicinity of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, where the former president has been staying since leaving the White House. Besides the two Florida banks, Deutsche Bank and Signature Bank, the latter of which is a New York-based institution, have also moved to draw their relationships with Trump to a close, and he’s been facing these announcements while also facing sharply declining revenues across the Trump family business. In 2020 and the early part of 2021, revenue at the Trump Organization fell by almost 38 percent compared to the previous year.
Besides these issues, Trump is also facing an impending second impeachment trial in the Senate after the House impeached him for his incitement of the recent Capitol violence. He’s already selected South Carolina attorney Butch Bowers as a member of his defense — Bowers’s past experience includes time in the Justice Department during the Bush administration and work on behalf of then-South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford (R) when he too faced impeachment back in 2009.
The first time around, Trump’s impeachment defense team included Rudy Giuliani… who faces his own scrutiny over his role in pushing the lies about the presidential election outcome that led to the recent rioting. In New York, the national group Lawyers Defending American Democracy recently requested Giuliani’s suspension from practicing law and an investigation of his conduct by state authorities.
