Could Dimon Atlantic Festival Talk Have Foreshadowed Post in a Harris Administration?

WASHINGTON — JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon would consider a government role, perhaps even that of the Treasury secretary, if Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris wins the U.S. presidential election, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.

The piece, by Times finance reporter Rob Copeland, doesn’t quote Dimon directly. A note at the top states Copeland “spoke to colleagues, friends, associates and rivals” for the story.

According to the Times, Dimon, chief executive of the nation’s largest bank and a lifelong Democrat, has been “uncharacteristically vague” about his political leanings of late.

“In private, however, Mr. Dimon has made clear that he supports Vice President Kamala Harris and would consider a role, perhaps Treasury secretary, in her administration,” the piece says.

It adds that Dimon doesn’t want to make his stance known in case former President Trump wins the election and wants to retaliate against those who opposed his run.

During a JP Morgan Chase post-earnings call earlier this month, Dimon said the chance of him being asked to take a role in the next administration was “almost nil.”

“And I probably am not going to do it. But I always reserve the right” to reconsider, he said.

In a written statement, Joseph Evangelisti, a JPMorgan spokesman, said Dimon “has never publicly endorsed a presidential candidate, but he speaks out forcefully and often on policies to help strengthen our country and lift up communities.”

“His comments are often weaponized by the left or right when he weighs in on politics or politicians, which is not constructive to helping solve our country’s biggest problems,” Evangelisti said.

Of course, it’s been that kind of year for Dimon, who has been the CEO of JP Morgan Chase since 2006.

In January, he shocked many by praising Trump’s record while admonishing Democrats to be “more respectful” of the former president’s supporters, or else run the risk of damaging President Joe Biden’s chances for reelection.

“I wish the Democrats would think a little more carefully when they talk about MAGA,” Dimon said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” during the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

Dimon’s comments had come after Biden warned that Trump and “MAGA Republicans” pose an existential threat to American democracy. 

The banker argued that such talk erroneously tied Trump’s supporters to the former president’s personality and character.

Democrats “are basically scapegoating them, [saying] that you are like him,” Dimon said. 

“I don’t think they’re voting for Trump because of his family values,” he added.

Dimon stood by those comments at subsequent appearances throughout the year, including a sit down with Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, during the Atlantic Festival in Washington, D.C. in September.

“You recently said something that was controversial — at least controversial in certain circles — you said Trump was kind of right about immigration and kind of right about NATO,” Goldberg said, asking Dimon to explain what he meant.

“Look, 74 million people voted for him, and there’s a lot of gaslighting, scapegoating and stuff like that … people impugn why they did it. And my point is, you shouldn’t do that,” Dimon said. “I don’t think we should be insulting any of our citizens at all.

“I obviously don’t like certain things, but immigration was a program. I don’t like how he dealt with it, but it was a problem and he acknowledged it,” Dimon continued. 

“China was a problem, there was a shift in policy, and he acknowledged it. He reduced regulations. He was pro business. The reasons why people voted for him weren’t because of his character,” he said. “So I was just making that point. And I still feel that way.

“If you’re running for something, and trying to get people’s votes, you should at least try to understand why they voted for that other person … rather than engage in this demonization which only leads to bad outcomes,” he added.

Dimon went on to talk about his annual bike trips, which this year took him to Seattle, Omaha, Nebraska, Bentonville, Arkansas, and St. Louis.

What he found in each of these destinations was “innovation. People working together. They’re not obsessed with everything people are obsessed with in New York City and San Francisco and D.C.; they’re not angry with each other. They’re building parks and trying to get jobs in place, and they’re trying to help their local community.

“So I think that’s the better attitude. Collaboration. People helping other people try to make things better,” he said.

During the half-hour session at the Festival, Dimon gave high marks to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, for talking just that kind of approach to address the city’s problems.

“They bring in business, not-for-profits, civic society, government and they try to attack the problems they face, which are homelessness, crime, schools, jobs, health care … and those problems are not Democratic or Republican. So, I don’t think you should weaponize those types of things. I think you should try to address problems with policies,” he said.

A little over a week after Dimon’s appearance in Washington, he and Trump were again linked in the news, this time after the Republican presidential nominee posted a screenshot on his Truth Social account falsely stating, “New: Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, has endorsed Trump for president.” 

“Jamie Dimon has not endorsed anyone. He has not endorsed a candidate,” Evangelisti responded.

Trump told NBC News and others that he didn’t know about the post, which remained visible on his account for some time afterwards before finally being removed.

Aside from advising Democrats not to paint all Trump supporters with the same broad brush, Dimon has constantly tried to steer his public comments toward the bigger picture.

“My view is not apocalyptic. I think America is hugely resilient,” he said at the Atlantic Festival.

“It’s got innovation. It’s growing. It’s a blessed land, you know? I mean, it’s got food, water, energy, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. All of that is still true,” he said.

“If you opened up our borders to the whole world 4 billion people would come here,” Dimon continued.

The grandson of Greek immigrants added: “I don’t like the demonization of America. I think we can acknowledge our flaws, but also celebrate the beauty of this country, which most people who don’t live here understand.

“If you travel the world, you quickly see that people don’t have what we have here,” Dimon said.

“Let me go back to what I said a moment ago. We’ve got food, water, energy, the Atlantic, the Pacific, great neighbors, when we treat them respectfully, in Mexico and Canada. We’ve got the gifts of our founding fathers … the freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise, and the value of freedom is extraordinary. That’s where the idea generation comes from, and if you look at all these autocratic nations, that’s what they fall down on,” he continued.

“People can’t talk in those nations. It’s all centered on ‘the boss wants X.’ They can’t innovate. Here you can buy what you want, move where you want, do what you want, say what you want; you can’t do that in a lot of countries.

“Now, we do have flaws. I always acknowledge them. We’ve done a terrible job for the 20% who make the lowest incomes in our society. And the life expectancy in the places where that 20% live are dying, on average, 10 years earlier than the rest of the population. Their schools aren’t working. How is it that the incomes of that segment of our society hasn’t gone up in 20 years? How the hell did that happen in America?

“Now, you could go through immigration and taxation and regulation and health care and pensions, and it’s clear, we screwed up. So I’m not saying we’re perfect, but the good stuff is unbelievable,” he said.

The Atlantic’s Goldberg pressed Dimon on a phrase the banker used more than once during their give and take, a phrase that implied the rest of the country is routinely being lectured by a nexus of San Francisco, New York and Washington, D.C.

“What are people hearing from these cities that they don’t like?” Goldberg asked.

“It’s things like, ‘Oh those people are just hanging out with their beers, their Bibles and their guns.’ I mean, really? It’s the whole ‘deplorables’ thing, over and over again. As a general thing, I think people are just tired of being disrespected by the so-called elite. But that’s been going on for a long time,” Dimon said.

“I think the real reason for the level of anger we’re seeing out there today is we left them behind,” he said.

Dimon said most of those who cast aspersions, “don’t even drive through that part of town … and don’t even know what it looks like.”

He said JP Morgan Chase takes a different approach, opening branches in hardpressed neighborhoods in Harlem, New York and the South Side of Chicago.

“And they are enormously productive. People like it. They respond to the fact that we try to relate to the community,” Dimon said.

“There are fixes — you can list any problem and there are fixes,” he said. “One of the problems we have, however, is that we spend very little time talking about policies that work and why they work.

“You can look around the world and find health policies, pension policies, education policies that actually work, and then you look at ours, and they actually didn’t. It takes 12 years in this country to rebuild a broken bridge, when in other countries, it takes two.

“How did that happen? Bureaucracy. Complacency. Rules and regulations. These are things that we have got to get fixed. We could make it worse, but I’m an optimist. I think we will fix it, but it’s going to take a lot of elbow grease,” Dimon said.

Seeing an opening, Goldberg posited that it sounded like what Dimon was talking about was a centrist approach to bipartisanship.

“There are a lot of politicians, Democrat, Republican, senators, congresspeople, who are good. They want to come up with answers for those who have been left behind and they want to address the divisiveness we’re all witnessing.

“Now some of this, of course, is controlled by other things. But I’m not the kind of person who throws my hands up and says ‘I’m not going to do it,’” Dimon said. “I think we need to get involved. People need to talk to people. 

“I talk to unions. I talk to the left. I talk to the right. That’s the only way that I know, and if you look at our best leaders, Abraham Lincoln, Eisenhower, Clinton, that’s what they did … and they did it recognizing that democracy is tough.”

Goldberg suggested that Bill Clinton was probably the last president who was effective following the centrist path. Dimon disagreed.

“I would say that’s an overstatement,” Dimon said.

“I think George Bush was effective in approaching some things that way. Obama was effective that way. Biden was effective that way. And there are some examples from the Trump administration. So it’s not a binary thing.

“There’s a book called ‘How Ike Led’” written by his daughters. And one of the things he made a point of was meeting with the opposition leaders, whether it was weekly, biweekly, over lunch or over dinner. And I think every president should do that.

“I mean, how can you say, ‘I am the president of the United States, I am the president of everybody, and I’m not going to sit down with folks on the other side?’ I mean, there’s a tremendous benefit to saying, ‘What’s on your mind?’ And looking for areas of agreement and where you share the same values, so that things can get done.”

Dimon then told a story about Bill Clinton that occurred during a particularly embattled part of his presidency.

Clinton wanted a piece of legislation passed, but his legislative staffers were reticent about going over to the Hill at that moment and trying to get it done.

“They said, ‘they’re tearing you down, Mr. President.’ And Clinton said, ‘Go to the Hill and get it done.’ That’s what you do. You have a job to do. It doesn’t matter what your feelings are at that moment … I mean, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it’s impossible, but I think it’s very important for all of us to do that.”

Goldberg asked Dimon whether he believed there might be room for a new, centrist party in American politics.

“I don’t know,” Dimon said warily. “I mean, when you say someone is a centrist, I think you’re still putting people in a bucket.”

“I’m different from other people. I’m trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t work. And I’m not talking about what works for Democrats or centrists or Republicans. I’m simply talking about what actually works.

“So, if what you mean when you describe someone as a centrist is that they are trying to bridge the gap; then I’d say yes, absolutely. 

“I mean [what we need is] people trying to understand what they need to compromise to make the next step. Democracy, by its nature, is compromise,” Dimon said. “The majority kind of gets its way, but not all the time … 

“But you know, you’re right in suggesting that it’s difficult to have two parties, one on the right and one on the left and alternating all the time because then you have flip-flopping policies that make it hard for everybody … so having people in office who are capable of reaching across the aisle would be great. Collaboration is a great thing,” Dimon said.

Dan can be reached at [email protected] and at https://twitter.com/DanMcCue