--- title: Donald Trump Is Considering Breaking Up Wall Street Banks description: The president told Bloomberg News he's "looking into" breaking up big banks on Monday, raising questions about the return of Glass-Steagall canonical: https://time.com/4761863/donald-trump-wall-street-big-banks-glass-steagall/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-01T17:51:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T04:41:10.442Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Says He's Interested in Breaking Up Wall Street Banks og:description: “I’m looking at that right now” og:url: https://time.com/4761863/donald-trump-wall-street-big-banks-glass-steagall/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8e0afe0802575e2f/6988cb678fd2ee5a23356d40/trump-ok.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: President Trump Meets With Independent Community Bankers Association og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Says He's Interested in Breaking Up Wall Street Banks twitter:description: “I’m looking at that right now” twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8e0afe0802575e2f/6988cb678fd2ee5a23356d40/trump-ok.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Says He's Interested in Breaking Up Wall Street Banks by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan May 1, 2017 5:51 PM UTC  President Donald Trump speaks at an event with the Independent Community Bankers Association in the Kennedy Garden of the White House on May 1, 2017 in Washington. President Donald Trump speaks at an event with the Independent Community Bankers Association in the Kennedy Garden of the White House on May 1, 2017 in Washington.Alex Wong—Getty Images by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan May 1, 2017 5:51 PM UTC President Donald Trump said Monday he is looking at a way to break up big Wall Street banks. In an interview with [Bloomberg News](https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-05-01/trump-says-he-s-considering-moves-to-break-up-wall-street-banks), Trump hinted that he could follow through on a campaign promise to bringing back a depression-era law that prevented commercial banks from engaging in investment banking. “I’m looking at that right now,” Trump told [_Bloomberg_](https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-05-01/trump-says-he-s-considering-moves-to-break-up-wall-street-banks). “There’s some people that want to go back to the old system, right? So we’re going to look at that.” On the campaign trail, President Trump called for a revised version of the Glass-Steagall Act and the Republican Party’s platform [included a provision to restore Glass-Steagall protections.](http://time.com/4411305/republican-convention-platform-glass-steagall-wall-street/) In the same interview, Trump said [he would consider raising the gas tax](https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-05-01/trump-open-to-raising-gas-tax-and-negotiating-tax-overhaul-plan) to help pay for an infrastructure plan. Trump’s focus on the banking industry through the Depression-era law aligned with that of [Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont](https://berniesanders.com/yes-glass-steagall-matters-here-are-5-reasons-why/) whose proposed policies tapped into the populist fervor that swept the country in 2016\. Former President Bill Clinton signed a law that effectively gutted the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999\. Some believe the repeal of the act led to the financial crisis, but [economists and experts disagree](http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/aug/19/bill-clinton/bill-clinton-glass-steagall-had-nothing-do-financi/). [Bloomberg](https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-05-01/trump-says-he-s-considering-moves-to-break-up-wall-street-banks) reports some Trump administration officials support the changes to Glass-Steagall, though there are few details about what a “21st Century version” of the law would look like under Trump. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4761863/donald-trump-wall-street-big-banks-glass-steagall/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4761863/donald-trump-wall-street-big-banks-glass-steagall/"},"headline":"President Trump Says He's Interested in Breaking Up Wall Street Banks","datePublished":"2017-05-01T17:51:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T04:41:10.442Z","description":"The president told Bloomberg News he's \"looking into\" breaking up big banks on Monday, raising questions about the return of Glass-Steagall.","url":"https://time.com/4761863/donald-trump-wall-street-big-banks-glass-steagall/","keywords":["White House","Economy","wall street","Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8e0afe0802575e2f/6988cb678fd2ee5a23356d40/trump-ok.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8e0afe0802575e2f/6988cb678fd2ee5a23356d40/trump-ok.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump Meets With Independent Community Bankers Association","caption":"President Trump Meets With Independent Community Bankers Association","creditText":"Alex Wong—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4761863/donald-trump-wall-street-big-banks-glass-steagall/","name":"President Trump Says He's Interested in Breaking Up Wall Street Banks"}}]}] ```