(Headline USA) JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon warned Democrats and the media this week to stop belittling supporters of former President Donald Trump.
“I wish the Democrats would think a little more carefully when they talk about MAGA,” Dimon told CNBC’s Squawk Box Wednesday in an interview from the World Economic Forum’s annual gathering of globalist elites in Davos, Switzerland.
Democrats were “basically scapegoating” Trump supporters by accusing them of sharing some of the former president’s perceived character deficiencies, Dimon added.
But they’re not “voting for Trump because of his family values,” he continued, noting that a growing number of Americans have legitimate concerns about the state of the country under President Joe Biden.
Dimon also gave credit to Trump for many of his policies, urging leftist voters to “take a step back” and “be honest.”
Trump “was kind of right about NATO, kind of right on immigration,” he explained. “He grew the economy quite well. Trade tax reform worked. He was right about some of China. He wasn’t wrong about some of these critical issues, and that’s why they voted for him.”
Continuing to demonize Trump and his supporters would only “hurt Biden’s campaign,” Dimon said.
Asked who he intended to support—Trump or Biden—in 2024, Dimon said he’d do what’s best for his business.
“I have to be prepared for both. I will be prepared for both. We will deal with both. And I hope whoever it is will be respectful of other people,” he said.
Trump—whose landslide win in the Iowa caucus on Monday cast a new aura of inevitability on his nomination as polls continue to show him ahead of Biden with a comfortable lead in electoral votes—was a topic of much discussion among the world leaders at the Davos summit, according to CNBC.
“He’s going to win the presidency,” said one CEO who wished to remain anonymous said. “Many of his policies were right.”
However, Ben Smith, co-founder of news outlet Semafor, predicted at the conference that Biden would ultimately benefit from low expectations if Trump continues to dominate the headlines, making it a mandate on him rather than the incumbent president’s failures and motivating anti-Trump voters to turn out against him.
“This year it is an absolute item of faith that Donald Trump will be elected president of the United States, which I think is great news for Joe Biden,” he said.
