President Donald Trump alleged Thursday that banks did not “step up to the plate” to help people affected by wildfires in Los Angeles last year, and singled out Wells Fargo as being “very difficult to deal with.”
The federal government “will be looking into” banks’ actions following the fires, Trump said in a Truth Social post. "The Banks must treat those people, who so horribly lost their Homes in this tragic fire, very fairly and well."
A Wells Fargo spokesperson declined to comment on the matter.
Trump made the allegations after meeting with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and L.A. County Fifth District Supervisor Kathryn Barger to discuss progress made following the fires, which destroyed more than 16,000 structures and burned more than 57,000 acres of land between Jan. 7 and 31, 2025.
Bass and Barger posted Wednesday that they had a “a very positive discussion about [Federal Emergency Management Agency] and other rebuilding funds, as well as the support of the President to continue joining us in pressuring the insurance companies to pay what they owe — and for the big banks to step up to ease the financial pressure on L.A. families.”
As the fires raged in January 2025, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that five major lenders — JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, U.S. Bank and Citi — would grant 90-day mortgage forbearances to homeowners within the affected zones.
The Mortgage Forbearance Act, passed in September, required lenders to offer mortgage forbearance for up to 12 months to those affected by the wildfires.
However, a spokesperson for Barger told the Hanford Sentinel that “mortgage forbearance continues to be a major issue.”
The banks “have a long way to go,” Trump said on Truth Social.
Banks have fallen into Trump’s crosshairs several times during his second term. He directly accused Bank of America of debanking conservatives during a question-and-answer session with CEO Brian Moynihan last year and sued both Capital One and JPMorgan Chase for allegedly debanking his businesses after the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency levied debanking accusations against nine banks, including the aforementioned three, in December.
Additionally, Trump proposed a 10% credit card rate cap in January, and was met with swift pushback from Wall Street.
“Our belief is that actions like this will have the exact opposite consequence to what the administration wants, in terms of helping consumers,” JPMorgan finance chief CFO Jeremy Barnum said at the time.
“Instead of lowering the price of credit, it will simply reduce the supply of credit, and that will be bad for everyone — consumers, the broader economy, and yes, at the margin, for us also,” Barnum said.
