JPMorgan's Dimon backtracks after saying he could beat Trump
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), quickly backtracked on Wednesday morning from having said he could beat President Donald Trump in a campaign but not liberal Democrats.
FILE PHOTO - Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, takes part in a panel discussion about investing in Detroit at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., April 11, 2018. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
“I should not have said it. I’m not running for President,” Dimon said in a written statement released within an hour of his original comments.
Dimon said his original remark “proves I wouldn’t make a good politician. I get frustrated because I want all sides to come together to help solve big problems.”
Dimon, at an event promoting a $500 million JPMorgan investment in cities, first said, “I think I could beat Trump ... because I’m as tough as he is, I’m smarter than he is,” according to CNBC, adding: “I can’t beat the liberal side of the Democratic party.”
“And by the way this wealthy New Yorker actually earned his money,” Dimon added. “It wasn’t a gift from Daddy.”
Dimon, 62, has said publicly in the past he will not run for president and does not have the temperament for the job. He said in January he expects to be chief executive officer of the bank for about five years.
The White House had no immediate response to a request for comment.
JPMorgan is the biggest bank in the United States by assets.
Reporting by David Henry in New York; Editing by James Dalgleish
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