By Zilber
Jamie Dimon hinted that he is eyeing a future in politics – prompting hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman to endorse the JPMorgan Chase CEO for president in 2024.
“I love my country, and maybe one day I’ll serve my country in one capacity or another,” the 67-year-old Dimon said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Wednesday, when asked if he would ever consider public office.
But Dimon also stressed that he is focused on running the Wall Street banking behemoth.
“I love what I do,” Dimon, who was speaking from JPMorgan’s annual Global China Summit in Shanghai, told Bloomberg.
Dimon said that “business can be a force for good” and described himself as a “red-blooded, full-throated free enterprise capitalist.”
“Everyone knows I am a patriot,” Dimon said.
Dimon’s comments prompted Ackman to praise him as an “exemplary leader” who “superbly managed” JPMorgan, the nation’s largest bank, through crises.
“Our country is at risk with $32T trillion of debt with no end to massive deficits in sight, heading into a recession at a time of great political uncertainty,” Ackman said in a tweet on Wednesday.
“There is nothing more for him to achieve at JPM. He has already been crowned the world’s best banker,” Ackman continued.
“JPM stock will go up even more when he becomes POTUS as he can do more for the bank and our economy as President than he can as Chairman and CEO of JPM.”
There has been previous speculation about a potential presidential bid by Dimon. At a conference in 2018, he reportedly quipped about hypothetically campaigning against President Donald Trump.
“I think I could beat Trump.. because I’m as tough as he is, I’m smarter than he is,” he said, according to a report by CNN.
Dimon added: “And by the way, this wealthy New Yorker actually earned his money. It wasn’t a gift from daddy.”
Trump hit back at Dimon at the time, calling him a “poor public speaker and a nervous mess.”
In 2019, Dimon told CNBC that he considers himself “barely a Democrat.”
He clarified that “my heart is Democratic, my brain is kind of Republican.”
Dimon was asked by CNN in April whether he still held that view.
“I think we can do a better job of lifting up all of our citizens.. Free market capitalism, properly regulated, has lifted billions of people out of poverty,” Dimon said.
“I’m usually led by my heart, but my brain part is saying if we’re going to spend money, we should spend it wisely.”
Dimon has been critical of Democrats on energy policy, saying “Republicans probably have that a little bit better.”
“If he decides to get out of banking, I think he would be really good in politics,” former President Bill Clinton once said of Dimon.
A spokesperson for JPMorgan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Dimon’s comments about his future came as JPMorgan denied Wednesday that its CEO ever had discussions with Jes Staley, a former top executive at the bank, about the lender’s business with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“There is no evidence that any such communications ever occurred – nothing in the voluminous number of documents reviewed and nothing in the nearly dozen depositions taken, including that of our own CEO,” the bank said in a statement.
The Wall Street Journal had earlier reported that Staley had several communications with Dimon about the bank’s ties with Epstein, citing the former executive’s statements in legal documents seen by the newspaper.
The bank has been slapped with two lawsuits saying it should have cut ties to Epstein.
It is seeking to hold Staley liable for concealing what he knew about the disgraced financier.
