JPMorgan’s Dimon pushes for business representation in U.S. cabinet

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JPMorgan Chase & Co. chief executive Jamie Dimon said the next U.S. president must work to bring together a “deeply divided” nation as domestic and geopolitical issues mount, and said the business world should have representation in the Cabinet.

“The private sector has huge wells of expertise and produces 85 per cent of our nation’s jobs,” Dimon said in an opinion piece published Friday in the Washington Post. “It should have a seat at the table. Yet in recent years, government leaders have often failed to engage those in industry. A president should put the most talented people, including those from business and the opposite party, into their Cabinet.”

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Dimon’s piece comes as Vice President Kamala Harris gains ground against her Republican rival. Harris — who’s running against Donald Trump after President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign — has wiped out Trump’s lead across seven battleground states, leaving the two candidates in a statistical dead heat, according to the latest Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll.

Trump said in a recent interview with Bloomberg Businessweek that he’s changed his view of Dimon, whom he assailed last year as a “highly overrated Globalist.” The former president said he could envision Dimon — thought to be contemplating a political career — as “somebody that I would consider” for Treasury secretary.

“I have a lot of respect for Jamie Dimon,” Trump said.

Dimon didn’t cite either presidential candidate by name, nor endorse either Harris or Trump, in his opinion piece.

The U.S. is coping with “challenging domestic issues and perhaps the most complicated geopolitical situation since World War II,” Dimon wrote in the article. He called on the next president to “unite Americans with regular, honest and open communication,” saying that former presidents such as Abraham Lincoln, Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower “guided us forward” and the best leaders address “broader interests of our country and don’t pander to base politics or cater to extremes.”

“Recognize that voters are all different and have good reasons to think differently,” Dimon wrote. “Do not insult, stereotype, weaponize, scapegoat or gaslight. And do not attack them. Engage them. This takes bravery.”

Bloomberg.com

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