Seven people were arrested on Wednesday as hundreds of climate and Indigenous rights activists staged non-violent protests at Wells Fargo’s corporate offices in New York City and San Francisco, launching a summer of civil disobedience against corporations accused of bowing to Donald Trump.
In New York, dozens of protesters stormed the lobby of the bank’s offices, blocking entrances and accusing Wells Fargo of complicity in the climate crisis. The bank, ranked 33rd in the Fortune 500, became the first major US bank to abandon its climate commitments after Trump signed executive orders boosting fossil fuels. Wells Fargo invested $39bn in fossil fuels in 2024, a 30% rise on the previous year, according to the Banking on Climate Chaos report.
“As dozens of teenagers die in climate-driven floods in Texas and thousands die in heatwaves around the world, it’s unconscionable that a bank like Wells Fargo would just completely walk away from its climate goals,” said Liv Senghor of Planet Over Profit, which led the New York protests.
In San Francisco, seven people were arrested after activists blocked all entrances to the bank’s global headquarters for several hours. Members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribal nation locked themselves to a sleeping dragon tripod. The Standing Rock and Cheyenne River tribes led the 2016-2017 fight against the Dakota Access pipeline, which Wells Fargo helped finance.
“DAPL was built through the Lakota Unceded Treaty Territory, without proper consent. That land holds our history, our spirit, and our ancestors,” said Trent Ouellette of Waste Wakpa Grassroots.
The protests are part of the Stop Billionaires Summer campaign, targeting tech billionaires and corporations backing Trump’s policies. Activists also painted a mural outside Wells Fargo’s San Francisco headquarters reading “Wells Fargo Funds Genocide”, referencing the bank’s investments in companies like Palantir, which provides technology to Israel and has contracts with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
