Donald Trump called JP Morgan Chase’s chief executive, Jamie Dimon, a “nervous mess” on Thursday, the day after the banker said he could beat Trump in a presidential campaign and said he was “smarter than he is”.
Trump slammed Dimon on Twitter the day after he criticized the president at a banking event. “The problem with banker Jamie Dimon running for President is that he doesn’t have the aptitude or ‘smarts’ & is a poor public speaker & nervous mess - otherwise he is wonderful,” Trump tweeted. “I’ve made a lot of bankers, and others, look much smarter than they are with my great economic policy!”
The problem with banker Jamie Dimon running for President is that he doesn’t have the aptitude or “smarts” & is a poor public speaker & nervous mess - otherwise he is wonderful. I’ve made a lot of bankers, and others, look much smarter than they are with my great economic policy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 13, 2018
His comments come after CNBC reported on Wednesday that Dimon told reporters at JPMorgan headquarters in New York: “I think I could beat Trump.
“Because I’m as tough as he is, I’m smarter than he is. I would be fine,” Dimon said. “He could punch me all he wants, it wouldn’t work with me. I’d fight right back.”
Dimon also suggested that his wealth was earned and not given to him by his father – another jab at Trump, whose father, Fred, gave him $1m in financing, millions drawn against his future inheritance and a share of his real estate holdings.
Dimon quickly clarified that he is not running for president and should not have made the remarks.
The pair have a mixed relationship. The banking executive fully supported Trump’s corporate tax cuts that passed late last year but has expressed frustration with the White House’s positions on immigration and trade.
Dimon, 62, is chairman of the Business Roundtable, a powerful lobbying group that represents the CEOs of the nation’s largest corporations, and is often seen as a voice for American business.
Last year, Dimon said it was “almost an embarrassment to be an American citizen traveling around the world and listening to the stupid shit we have to deal with in this country”.
Trump often brags about his academic pedigree. He went to Fordham University and has an undergraduate degree from the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League school.
“I’m like a really smart person,” Trump has said. In 2013, he tweeted: “Sorry losers and haters, my I.Q. is one of the highest - and you all know it! Please don’t feel so stupid or insecure, it’s not your fault.”
Dimon has an MBA from Harvard Business School.
