Donald Trump Jr.’s news company. was dumped by PNC Bank

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Donald Trump Jr. said on Thursday that PNC Bank informed him that it would no longer work with its news aggregation app.

In a live broadcast on Newsmax with host John Bachman, the former president’s son blamed “cancel culture” for the bank’s decision.

Trump made the comments at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, DC, where many prominent Republicans had gathered. Among the speakers at the event were Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, Senator JD Vance of Ohio and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley. Trump Jr. is scheduled to address the CPAC crowd on Friday morning, while his father will headline Saturday night.

Trump told Bachman that he “got an interesting letter from a bank this week” before linking the letter’s message to the “cancellation culture that’s going on in our country right now, the weaponization of corporate America.”

Donald Trump Jr. at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit at the Tampa Convention Center on July 23, 2022, in Tampa, Florida. Trump Jr. said in an interview Thursday that PNC Bank informed him that it would no longer do business with his news aggregation app. Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Trump initially told Bachman he would provide details about the letter during his CPAC speech, but he soon revealed the message purportedly came from PNC Bank.

“I’m going to throw this out there first,” Trump said, adding that the letter was about business dealings with MxM News, a conservative news aggregation app he launched in 2022.

“Basically, PNC Bank sent us a letter—not even a phone call—like a breakup through text,” he said. “A letter with a cashier’s check for, you know, what we have—large sums of money—that we have in an account for a news aggregator, not even someone doing like right-wing propaganda, but something that takes all the news. so you can be sure you’ll see.”

Trump did not provide details about why the alleged letter was sent, and the context of why PNC Bank allegedly wanted to quit MxM News.

When reached for comment, a PNC Bank representative provided a statement to Newsweek.

“While PNC does not comment on the closure of specific accounts, which may occur for a variety of reasons, our account closure decisions are never politically motivated,” the statement read. “As a national bank, we recognize and respect that our customers and our employees have a wide range of political beliefs.”

On Friday, PNC followed up with another statement posted on Twitter in response to a tweet from Trump about closing the account.

“Account closures can happen for a variety of reasons but are never influenced by our customers’ political views or affiliations. We have carefully investigated the circumstances surrounding the closure of ROCDIGITAL, LLC [MxM News’ parent company] account and determined that it was erroneously closed due to a good faith error. We have reopened the account and apologize for any inconvenience,” the statement read.

Along with MxM News, which Trump launched with Taylor Budowich—who once worked as a spokesperson for Trump Sr.—the younger Trump is also the executive vice president of the Trump Organization and the host of the Triggered podcast.

Newsweek reached out to Trump Jr. for comment.

Update 03/03/23 11:10 am ET: This story has been updated to include an additional statement from PNC Bank.

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