- JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon wasn’t shocked by the November election result. In fact, after speaking to voters around the country, he saw it coming.
While President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in the battle for the White House may have come as a surprise to some, it was no shock to Wall Street’s white knight Jamie Dimon.
The JPMorgan Chase CEO said November’s election result was the culmination of feedback he had heard across the country, with voters tired of being “lectured” to by the current administration.
In an interview with CBS Sunday Morning released over the weekend, Dimon was asked if he was surprised that Trump had won the election, to which he responded “no.”
“People were angry at the—what do they call it?—the state, the swamp…ineffective government,” Dimon explained.
“People wanted kind of more pro-growth and pro-business policies; they didn’t want to be lectured to on social policies continuously,” he added. “I think it’s the lecturing part of it—the social superiority, it’s the ‘My way or the highway.’
“I traveled around the country. I felt it wherever I went.”
Dimon, 68, is not a man known to mince his words or keep his policy concerns or advice to himself.
Despite the fact that his wife, Judy, went door-knocking for Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign, Dimon has been critical of both the Democrats and Republicans.
The man who leads America’s biggest bank has previously described himself as “barely a Democrat,” but in the most recent election cycle he has refused to be drawn on which side of the ballot he voted for.
JPMorgan also continuously shot down reports of Dimon’s endorsement for one candidate or the other and nixed rumors that its CEO had been recruited for a key role in either potential administration.
While Dimon is not singing from quite the same hymn sheet as DOGE boss and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, he added that the government does need to “demonstrate its competency.”
“I think every government department should report to you and say, ‘Dear taxpayer, you gave me $50 billion, I told you I was going to do X. Here’s what I did; here’s the outcomes.’
“I just think we’ve lost our way,” the Harvard Business School alumnus added. “My views—I spend a lot of time in [Washington,] D.C.—is just roll up your sleeves and get involved in the fight.”
Talking politics at home
It’s clear the Dimon household has some lively political debates, with the billionaire banker saying he thinks Trump has been right “in general” about immigration issues.
“I have this debate with my wife,” Dimon told journalist Lesley Stahl. “You can talk about specifics and disagree, but the concern around border security? Obviously. Every country in the world is concerned about that.
“In the big picture, my guess is 90% of Americans say, ‘Yes, we should have proper border security.’ They might mean something slightly different when they say that.”
Other policies that Dimon would like to see enacted will not surprise those who regularly follow his commentary.
The CEO, who recently announced a change in his retirement timeline from the corner office at JPMorgan, has long advocated for schools to be measured on the career prospects of their pupils instead of the colleges they get into after graduating.
Dimon reiterated a focus on skills alongside academics in his latest interview: “I would love to see high schools, community colleges, and colleges measured on what is the outcome of the kid being educated.
“Like, do they get a job that’s well paying? Not do they do math well. Because I think that would put a lot more pressure on skills that could give you a really good-paying job. That could be cyber, data analytics, advanced manufacturing, nursing, technical skills, compliance, financial skills—we should do that.”
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