Could JP Morgan boss Jamie Dimon run for President of the United States? Billionaire investor Bill Ackman thinks so
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman has argued that JP Morgan boss Jamie Dimon should run for president after comments earlier this week suggesting Wall Street’s longest-serving bank boss would consider running.
In a tweet, Ackman said “we need an exemplary business, financial, and global leader to manage through what is likely to be a critically important decade for our country in determining our destiny. Jamie Dimon is that leader.”
Amid increasing partisanship in the US, Ackman said Dimon was “pro-business and pro-free enterprise, but also supportive of well-designed social programs and rational tax policies that can help the less fortunate.”
Dimon has been at JP Morgan since 2005, making him comfortably the longest serving bank boss on Wall Street. In that time the bank’s share price has nearly tripled.
Ackman said “there is nothing more for him to achieve at JPM. He has already been crowned the world’s best banker”.
Ackman’s support came after comments Dimon made to Bloomberg TV earlier this week, which seemed to suggest he would consider a run for president.
When asked if he would consider public office, Dimon said “I love my country and maybe one day I’ll serve my country in one capacity or another”.
He reportedly considered running for president of the United States in 2020, although eventually decided against. Rumours have also circulated that he could follow the example of former Goldman Sachs boss Hank Paulson, who became George Bush’s treasury secretary.
Dimon identified as a Democrat back in 2012, albeit “barely“, and had close ties to the Obama administration. However, in 2019 he dropped his Democratic affiliation, saying “my heart is Democratic but my brain is kind of Republican”.
Although securing Ackman’s support, Dimon faces continued questions about his connections to disgraced financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Dimon maintains he never met with Epstein nor had any involvement in decisions about Epstein’s account. However, ex-JP Morgan executive and Barclays boss Jes Staley claims to have communicated with Dimon about whether to maintain Epstein as a JP Morgan client.