Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase have become the latest to join the long list of companies that are planning to review and then halt all political contributions in the aftermath of the riots in the Capitol last week. The decision is in a bid to boycott Republican members who supported President Donald Trump's call to overturn the election results.
US digital payments company Stripe is also planning to stop processing payments for Trump's campaign website following the riots, a company spokesperson said. The action from the top US banks follows an announcement from the Marriott International, which said that it will be pausing donations to Republican senators who voted against certifying President-elect Joe Biden, after considering the "destructive events" on Wednesday.
Boycotting Trump and His Allies
JPMorgan said that it is planning a six month suspension to both Republicans and Democrats. Goldman is still in the process of formulating measures to cut down on future political donations to Republican leaders who joined Trump in overturning the election results, while Citigroup plans to temporarily suspend all kinds of political donations at least for this quarter.
"We want you to be assured that we will not support candidates who do not respect the rule of law," Candi Wolff, Citigroup's head of global government affairs, said in a memo to employees.
JPMorgan Chase said that it is becoming more alert and it's time "focus of business leaders, political leaders, civic leaders right now should be on governing and getting help to those who desperately need it most right now. There will be plenty of time for campaigning later."
The decision comes as Trump reportedly was fundraising even after the November 3 election in a bid to create a fund for legal proceeding to be used to challenge the election results. However, the money was also to be use to meet traveling expensing of Republicans and other activities that included a possible 2024 election run.
Cutting Ties
Citigroup said in a memo to its employees that after reviewing lawmakers who led the charge against the certification of the Electoral College results, it that found it gave $1,000 to the campaign of Republican Senator Josh Hawley in 2019 because he represented Missouri where it has 'significant employee presence.'
Hawley was even seen saluting protesters with a fist pump before they stormed the Capitol. The stands taken by the top US banks come after Marriott took a similar step following the riots in the Capital. Marriott is closely tied to Utah Senator Mitt Romney, a former board member and a vocal critic of Trump. Romney's connection to Marriott predates his service on the board: his given name, Willard, was in honor of J. Willard Marriott, a friend of the 2012 Republican presidential nominee's father and founder of the hotel company.
'We have taken the destructive events at the Capitol to undermine a legitimate and fair election into consideration and will be pausing political giving from our Political Action Committee to those who voted against certification of the election,' Marriott spokeswoman Connie Kim said.
Not only banks but several other companies are also considering pausing political donations, at least for the time being.
Ford, AT&T and Bank of America would be taking the actions of the lawmakers in consideration before deciding on whether to donate. CVS, Exxon Mobil, FedEx and Target are also reviewing their political giving. Also, tech giants like Twitter, Facebook and Amazon have taken steps to limit the spread of disinformation that could incite more violence.
