Trump Sues JPMorgan and Jamie Dimon for 'Debanking' Him

Jessica Mendoza (0:00)

Hey, this is Jessica Mendoza, host of The Journal Podcast, our show about money, business and power. If you're looking for more deeply reported stories like we share every day, consider becoming a subscriber to The Wall Street Journal. Visit subscribe.wsj.com/thejournal, all lowercase, to subscribe now.

Alex Ossola (0:23)

President Trump is suing JPMorgan for closing his accounts. Plus, colorectal cancer is now the top cause of death from cancer among younger Americans. And why Elon Musk decided SpaceX should go public after more than two decades as a private company.

Corrie Driebusch (0:38)

There is a sense of urgency right now. Our reporting shows that he's become a bit obsessed with the idea of being the first to put these data centers in space.

Alex Ossola (0:48)

It's Thursday, January 22nd. I'm Alex Ossola for The Wall Street Journal. This is the PM Edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today.

Today, President Trump sued JPMorgan Chase and its CEO, Jamie Dimon, for $5 billion, alleging that the bank closed his accounts for political reasons after the riot at the Capitol on January 6th, 2021 The lawsuit, which was filed in Florida, says the bank closed the accounts that year and that JPMorgan has blacklisted Trump since then. The president has said the country's biggest banks discriminate against him, his followers, and conservatives broadly. And he's ordered regulators to launch investigations into banks over allegations of what's known as debanking. JPMorgan has said it doesn't discriminate based on politics, and a spokeswoman today said the suit has no merit. More younger Americans are dying from colorectal cancer than any other kind of cancer. The American Cancer Society said today that more than 3,900 adults under the age of 50 died of cancer of the colon or rectum in 2023 That compares with just over 3,800 who died of breast cancer, the number two cause of deaths from cancer for that year. Colorectal cancer cases have been on the rise in younger adults for years, and the fact that it's now the top cancer killer means the disease is often diagnosed when it's already at an advanced stage. Medical groups have lowered the recommended age for colonoscopies that can detect the disease early on, but doctors say not enough people under 50 are getting the screenings. SpaceX, one of the most valuable private companies in the US, has long resisted going public. In fact, it got so valuable in part because it could develop risky space businesses outside the scrutiny of public investors. Its executives like to say the company wouldn't IPO until its rockets were regularly flying to Mars. Now though, the stock market debut may be coming soon. People familiar with the matter say CEO Elon Musk is racing towards an IPO in the next few months. Journal reporter Corrie Driebusch is here to tell us more about Musk's change of heart. Corrie, Musk has complained loudly and often about the challenges of running his existing public company Tesla. He is repeatedly tangled with regulators and courts over issues like his compensation, which is the kind of thing that is less of an issue when a company is private. So what's pushing Musk to make SpaceX public?

Corrie Driebusch (3:22)

SpaceX has been a private company for over two decades. And what really has sparked it all ties back to this boom in AI. There's been this rush to build lots of data centers for AI computing. For several years, there's been some talk in certain circles about what if we just put these data centers into space? That way we don't have to worry about licensing or land or the pollution that might happen on Earth. So that idea prompted, as you can imagine, a lot of skepticism from engineers, given the technical challenges.

But it has continued to gain traction. And in the past year, SpaceX was able to make some progress in figuring out the logistical and technical workings. So that sort of sparked this idea, we should go public sooner. This is going to be very expensive. The easiest way to do this is to raise a lot of money in a public stock offering.

Alex Ossola (4:24)

Musk has told people that he wants to complete this IPO by July. Are they in a rush to get this done?

Corrie Driebusch (4:30)

They started interviewing banks to underwrite this public offering starting in December. So we know that they have been setting up the groundwork to launch an offering. There is a sense of urgency right now. Not only do we have SpaceX that is looking at a 2026 stock offering, we're also hearing that OpenAI and Anthropic, two large AI companies, are eyeing potentially 2026 IPOs. You think about how much money all these companies are going to be raising. Bankers have told us there is a first mover advantage, that if you're out first, you kind of get the first pick of all of the cash out there.