PNC Bank ends business relationship with Donald Trump Jr’s MxM News app company ‘without cause’
EXCLUSIVE: PNC Financial Services Group Inc. abruptly terminated its business relationship with the news aggregation app company launched last year by Donald Trump Jr. and former Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich, Fox News Digital has learned, which the company called the latest move by ‘woke corporations’ to silence conservatives.
MxM News was founded and launched last year by Trump Jr. and Budowich to compete with apps that aggregate news content for readers, like Apple News, Google News and others that conservatives have accused of censorship. The parent company of MxM News is ROCDIGITAL, LLC.
Budowich told Fox News Digital that he first learned of the abrupt closure of the company’s PNC account when he visited a Florida branch office to pay vendor invoices.
‘The teller said he was unable to complete the transfers as the account had been closed and balance had been zeroed out,’ Budowich told Fox News Digital.
‘After being told to call a generic help line, I was informed by the PNC representative that per the terms and conditions, PNC reserves the right to re-evaluate their business relationships at any time and terminate accounts without cause,’ Budowich said.
He added: ‘Woke corporations are using their terms and conditions like a guillotine over the head of every conservative entrepreneur.’
Trump Jr. told Fox News Digital that MxM News was created to ‘provide curated stories that are being silenced and or suppressed by big tech and the mainstream media.’
‘However, as this shows, it’s not just the media that’s become plagued by the woke agenda,’ he said. ‘It’s banks, it’s the entire corporate America.’
Trump Jr. added: ‘We need a patriot economy. We need a parallel economy to fight back.’
Trump Jr. told Fox News Digital that the closure was ‘a minor setback for MxM News that we were able to quickly resolve.’
‘But what about every other start up, or small business who wants to pursue a values-based company?’ Trump Jr. asked. ‘This should be investigated, and it should be illegal to discriminate based on political affiliation.’
Fox News obtained a PNC Bank document notifying Trump Jr. and Budowich of the account closure.
‘Here’s what happened: Your PNC account has been closed. Enclosed you’ll find a cashier’s check representing the balance of your remaining funds,’ the document reads. ‘Here’s what you’ll need to do: Please destroy all unused checks, withdrawal/deposit tickets and any debit card accessing the account.’
‘It is important for you to know that, going forward, any transactions presented to your account will be returned,’ the document reads.
When asked for comment, PNC told Fox News Digital the bank does not make its account closure decisions based on the political beliefs of its customers.
‘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 driven by politics,’ PNC said in a statement to Fox News Digital. ‘As a national bank, we recognize and respect that our customers and our employees hold a wide range of political beliefs.’
The sudden closure of the account comes as large corporations have grappled with accusations of political bias and discriminatory practices related to conservative-aligned businesses.
In recent years, banks had come under fire for a rash of account closures owned by individuals linked to conservative causes or former President Trump.
MxM News, which launched in March 2022, has recently closed a Series A funding round and has plans to provide localized news services as part of its growing news aggregation platform.