JPMorgan CEO Dimon Serves as ‘Sounding Board’ for Trump
Though uninterested in joining the White House, Jamie Dimon has reportedly been advising the president-elect.
The JPMorgan Chase CEO has been in communications with Donald Trump for months, the New York Post reported Friday (Nov. 29). Sources on the Trump transition team told the newspaper that Dimon — a Queens native, like the once-and-future president — has acted as a “sounding board” for the incoming administration’s economic plans.
One source inside the Republican Party said Trump’s inner circle had conducted “no-holds-barred conversations” with Dimon — who at one point was rumored to be considering a government job himself.
“They have been speaking regularly for months,” said another GOP source briefed on the situation.
The discussions centered on taxes, trade, banking regulation and plans for cutting government spending, the sources added.
The report said these talks continued in spite of tension between Trump and Dimon. For example, Trump wrote on Nov. 14 that Dimon “will not be invited” to join his Cabinet. The CEO promptly replied: “I haven’t had a boss in 25 years and I’m not about ready to start.”
While there were rumors that Dimon would be considered a Treasury secretary nominee under a future administration — regardless of the party in power — a source at his bank told Reuters last month that the chances of him leaving were “almost nil.”
Dimon has led America’s largest bank for nearly two decades, and made his intention to stay known before the election results were announced.
“Our country is now concluding one of the hardest fought, and at times divisive, elections in our recent history. … Soon it will be time for all of us to unite behind our president-elect and all of our national leaders,” said Dimon, who has been outspoken about financial regulation.
While Dimon has refrained from endorsing presidential candidates, he has frequently trekked to D.C. to talk with policymakers, expressing his thoughts on issues ranging from housing to the economy to America’s relations with China.
Judy Dimon, the Wall Street giant’s wife, had campaigned for Trump’s Democratic challenger, Vice President Kamala Harris, in Michigan.
Meanwhile, last week saw the news that Trump and congressional Republicans were considering sweeping changes to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
Republicans are hoping to limit the powers and funding of the CFPB, placing them in the same camp with banks, credit card and mortgage lenders and large big financial companies.
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