Trump says he is 'looking at' breaking up Wall Street banks
President Trump said he is "looking at" breaking up giant Wall Street banks during an interview with Bloomberg News on Monday. "I'm looking at that right now," Trump said. "There's some people that want to go back to the old system, right? So we're going to look at that."
The "old system" Trump refers to is the 1933 Depression-era Glass-Steagall law that required a separation of consumer lending and investment banking. The Republican platform also backs restoring the law, which was repealed in 1999 under former President Bill Clinton.
Trump's Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who is a former banker for Goldman Sachs, has also called for a "21st century" Glass-Steagall.
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"On the one hand, a revival of Glass-Steagall would fly in the face of Trump's push to accelerate the American economy by massively reducing regulation," writes CNN Money. "But Trump did bash big banks before the election, especially Goldman Sachs. Breaking up the banks would appeal to Trump's populist message of draining the swamp by uprooting the establishment."
