Trump poised to pick fight with big banks over lending for small businesses

 By 

Charles Gasparino

Jamie Dimon, Brian Moynihan, Jane Fraser and the heads of other big banks will soon have something else to fear from Donald Trump than just his tariff wars, On The Money has learned.

Sources close to the Trump administration say The Donald and his economic team plan to upend commercial banking by demanding that the CEOs and more importantly their deep-pocketed banks – places like JP Morgan, Bank of America, and Citigroup — ramp up lending to small businesses as a way to jolt economic growth.

“Trump wants these bankers to go back to running banks, not hedge funds, and that means lending to small businesses,” one Trump insider told On The Money. “If they want to be hedge funds, they should sell off their commercial banks and become Goldman Sachs.”

Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan, from left, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser and JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon.Jack Forbes / NY Post Design

Small business is generally defined as having 500 or fewer employees. It is considered a linchpin of the US economy, responsible for nearly half of all economic activity, according to the US Small Business Administration.

It was also the backbone of traditional banking, but the fact that that is no longer the case is something the White House wants to change.

As my Trump source pointed out: “When was the last time you heard Dimon talk about real banking like lending to small businesses on Main Street as opposed to his operations around the globe?”

Reps for Dimon, Moynihan and Fraser had no comment. A White House spokesman had no comment.

The lending to these companies is a $1.7 trillion industry, which sounds good until you consider it is dwarfed by other areas of banking.

Beginning in the late 1990s – when a wave of deregulation allowed financial institutions to house securities operations and commercial banking under one roof – trading, securitization, M&A and global lending became more lucrative than doling out loans to restaurateurs or small factories.

President Trump and his economic team want Wall Street to ramp up lending to small businesses as a way to jolt economic growth.THANANIT – stock.adobe.com

In recent years, non-bank lenders have stepped in and attempted to fill the void, but they don’t have the balance sheets to scale-up lending to small-sized companies like JP Morgan, Bank of America and Citigroup, all with $1 trillion or more in assets.

Of course, the banks will tell you it’s not all their fault that small-business lending is shrinking in importance to them. Demand for these loans has been low since COVID, which shuttered mom-and-pop operations that never reopened. Biden-era inflation didn’t help matters. Regulation became particularly dicey after the demise of Silicon Valley Bank and other community lenders.

The Trumpers are set to remind Dimon & Co., that Biden is gone. The regulatory environment is shifting to de-regulation, so they should open the spigot to small businesses. And they have an obligation to do so: All the big banks are Too Big To Fail institutions, meaning if they screw up badly enough, the federal government will bail them out

Such an ask would be ignored in the past given the cozy relationship bank chiefs maintained with DC-based regulators and past administrations. But I have pointed out in the past, bank CEOs are deathly afraid of the Orange Man in the White House, who is known to be vindictive when he doesn’t get his way.  

And for the next three-plus-years, Trump is their regulator, which is why they’re probably inclined to play nice with him over this no matter how much it costs them.

https://nypost.com/2025/04/11/business/trump-poised-to-pick-fight-with-big-banks-over-lending-for-small-businesses/

11 student visas pulled at Long Island’s Stony Brook U, part of nearly 2 dozen revocations at SUNY

 At least 11 international students from Stony Brook University and dozens of others students at other SUNY schools have had their visas yanked — part of a sweeping nationwide crackdown by the Trump administration, the school confirmed.

Stony Brook officials have so far refused to release any information on the students or say whether any of the affected students participated in pro-Palestinian protests, which have led to visa revocations for students at other schools.

4

At least 11 international Stony Brook University students have had their visas revoked according to a report.Steve Cukrov – stock.adobe.com

The Long Island university, which had more than 3,800 international students enrolled this year, said it’s working with impacted students and the state to provide legal help and guidance to those affected.

“We are monitoring this evolving situation and working with campuses to ensure our students know their rights,” Holly Liapis, a SUNY spokesperson said.

“Stony Brook University is monitoring this evolving situation closely and working with SUNY and our state partners to ensure affected students know their rights, are connected with the New York State Office for New Americans for legal support, and understand their options to continue their education,” the school said.

Other schools on Long Island, such as SUNY Old Westbury and Hofstra University, said they were not aware of any visa issues on their campuses, but across the SUNY system, 21 other students have had their visa status changed over the last couple of weeks, Newsday reported.

However, it is unclear how many were flat-out revoked, and whether they had anything to do with campus demonstrations.

At the University at Buffalo, officials released a statement this week announcing that four current students and nine recent grads had their visas stripped.

4

Student Anti-Israel protesters from Stony Brook University protest for the second day on campus.Dennis A. Clark

4

Student Anti-Israel protesters from Stony Brook University demonstrate outside of the Earth and Space Sciences building.Dennis A. Clark

CUNY also reported 17 international students experienced changes to their visa status, while Fordham University said two of its students — who they confirmed had no links to any campus protests — had their visas revoked as well, according to a school spokesperson.

The Trump admin has been cracking down on immigrant students, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio announcing in March that he has already revoked more than 300 visas for students, some of which he said was due to their anti-Israel actions.

“No one’s entitled to a student visa,” Rubio said in a cabinet meeting Wednesday.

4

CUNY also reported 17 international students experienced changes to their visa status.valeriyap – stock.adobe.com

“If you come to this country as a student, we expect you to go to class and study and get a degree. If you come here to vandalize a library, take over a campus, and do all kinds of crazy things, we’re going to get rid of these people,” Rubio added.

https://nypost.com/2025/04/11/us-news/at-least-11-visas-revoked-at-long-islands-stony-brook-university/

Cuomo admin bought half a billion dollars of medical equipment during pandemic it never used

 Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo spent almost $453 million during the COVID-19 pandemic stockpiling medical equipment such as ventilators that have almost entirely gone unused, a damning new audit by the state comptroller found.

State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli found that only three items out of thousands purchased by the former governor’s office were ever sent out to hospitals, according to the report.

“New York state bought hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of medical equipment at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, including ventilators and x-ray machines, that now sits unused in storage facilities across the state, missing recommended maintenance and costing taxpayers storage expenses,” DiNapoli wrote in a statement.

3

Then Gov. Andrew Cuomo contracted McKinsey to estimate how much durable medical equipment the state needed to procure to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.Steven Hirsch

The audit found that DOH’s stockpile, called the medical emergency response cache, grew from around 4,800 pieces of equipment before the pandemic, to 252,000 items now.

Of the roughly 248,000 pieces of equipment purchased during the pandemic, only three were ever deployed, the auditors found after reviewing databases supposed to keep track of the items.

The auditors also visited the warehouses and found some items were missing.

“DOH officials said that it was possible that they were put into use at some point and not recorded,” the report noted.

Despite a special committee within the DOH being charged with figuring out what to do with the stockpile in 2021, much of the equipment remains untouched and going to waste in state warehouses.

The auditors noted that the health department refused to provide documents providing details about how decisions were made about what to do with the stockpile.

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

3

Virtually none of the nearly 250,000 pieces of medical equipment the state bought during the pandemic have ever been used, an audit from the state comptroller found.Matthew McDermott

In March 2020, Cuomo’s office took over leading the pandemic response for the state. Responding to an uptick in hospitalizations and fear that the crisis could overwhelm the state’s hospitals, Cuomo’s administration gave consultancy firm McKinsey & Company $5.1 million to tell it how much equipment to purchase for its stockpile.

Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi, who served in the administration at the time, said McKinsey overestimated how much equipment would be needed.

What followed was a mad scramble for equipment that Azzopardi blames, in part, on the first Trump administration’s decision not to centralize procurement.

“It was a race to the bottom that drove prices up, but time was of the essence and the law recognizes that in these situations the normal procurement process doesn’t work,” Azzopardi said noting that the overestimate was a good thing, because it meant the state was doing better at curtailing the virus’ spread.

“You can Monday morning quarterback now, but then we were looking to save lives and doing nothing wasn’t an option,” Azzopardi added.

3

Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi defends the former administration’s pandemic response, arguing that it was a good thing the stockpile was never used.AP

He also cast doubt on the accuracy of DiNapoli’s numbers, claiming the administration sent plenty of supplies to hospitals.

During the scramble, Cuomo accepted a donation of 1,000 ventilators from China. Last year it was revealed that the gift was set up in part by Linda Sun, a staffer accused of spying for the Chinese government.

A firm with connections to Sun billed the state $700,000 for handling the logistics of shipping the gifted ventilators, the indictment against the former aid alleged.

DiNapoli’s audit shows that only 51 pieces of equipment were donated during the pandemic, meaning the Chinese ventilators were likely never counted as part of the stockpile.

https://nypost.com/2025/04/11/us-news/state-bought-half-a-billion-dollars-of-medical-equipment-during-the-pandemic-it-never-used-audit/