JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has been communicating with President-elect Donald Trump in recent months through secret back channels, helping Trump and his team hammer out a policy agenda before and since his decisive win, according to an exclusive report from The New York Post.
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Four sources close to Trump’s transition team told The Post that Dimon has acted as “a sounding board” for the incoming president’s economic manifesto.
First, a bit about Dimon.
The 68-year-old who, like Trump, grew up in Queens, New York, has an estimated net worth of $2.6 billion. He has been the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of JPMorgan Chase — the largest bank in the U.S. in terms of assets under management, valued at nearly $4 trillion — since 2006. Dimon’s move to unload $12 billion of subprime mortgages in 2006 buffered his bank against the 2008 crash.
The point?
This is another example of Trump listening to — and taking the advice of — very smart, very successful people in their respective fields of expertise vs. Washington bureaucrats or agenda-driven university professors.
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“They have been speaking regularly for months,” a Republican source said, who briefed The Post. Another source said Trump’s inner circle held a series of “no-holds-barred conversations” with Dimon.
Three of the sources close to Trump said the ongoing communication has focused on the incoming president’s plans for cutting government spending, banking regulation, taxes, and trade. The first objective, cutting government spending, tracks with Trump naming Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and 2024 presidential primary candidate entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to lead Trump’s planned Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
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An insider told The Post that top Trump aides set up the calls to “create a bit of daylight” between Trump and Dimon to prevent details of the exchanges from leaking. A spokesperson for the Trump transition team declined to comment, as did a JPMorgan spokesman.
Here’s more:
The quietly cozy relationship between Trump and Dimon has flourished despite the banker’s cryptic and tight-lipped tendencies when it comes to politics. Trump had floated Dimon’s name as a possible Treasury secretary pick in June and later claimed he had won his White House endorsement — despite a lack of any public statement from Dimon to that effect.
Trump and Dimon also have continued to talk despite bouts of tension, including on Nov. 14 when the president-elect declared on Truth Social that Dimon ”will not be invited” to join his Cabinet. The banker promptly shot back: “I haven’t had a boss in 25 years and I’m not about ready to start.”
The JPMorgan CEO, a registered Democrat who declined to back either candidate in the White House race, had even reportedly toyed with the idea of joining a Kamala Harris administration but then ruled himself out of leaving the Wall Street giant when her poll numbers tanked, The Post previously reported.
“Two weeks ago,” according to the Post report, Dimon said Trump’s threat of slapping tariffs on America’s major trading partners “will bring people to the table” if “done wisely.”
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Dimon, a staunch critic of current US banking rules, recently blasted the “onslaught” of red tape drafted by Democrat-backed regulators in a foul-mouthed tirade. “It’s time to fight back…I’ve had it with this s***,” the CEO told the shocked audience.
The Bottom Line
I hesitate to repeat myself, but I’m going to do it anyway. Donald Trump has already conclusively proved, in my not-so-humble opinion, that he’s a wiser man than in 2016 with respect to taking advice from sources he might not have listened to during his first presidency, which he’s also done as he’s filled cabinet positions and appointed other advisors.
