President-elect Donald Trump did not answer a call from JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon to congratulate him on his big election victory, according to reports.
Mr. Dimon, a 68-year-old bank executive who describes himself as “hardly a Democrat,” was instead forced to leave a voicemail offering congratulations and support. The New York Times reported.
The Post exclusively reported last month that Dimon had been communicating with Trump through secret back channels in recent months.
Mr. Dimon, who like Mr. Trump is from Queens, has secretly helped shape the president-elect's policy agenda as a Republican “consultant'' before and after his decisive victory in the White House.
“They have been talking regularly for months,” a Republican official briefed on the situation told the Post.
Nevertheless, days after the election, President Trump announced on his Truth Social platform that Dimon, who had previously been rumored to be interested in a government post, would not be joining his administration.
“While I have great respect for Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase & Co., he will not be invited to be part of the Trump administration. Thank you for Jamie's outstanding service to our country!” President Trump Truth social account said in a post on November 14th.
Despite reports of being snubbed, Mr. Dimon told Bloomberg News Last month, it was reported that the financial industry was “dancing in the streets” over the prospect of Trump seizing power and cutting regulations.
“A lot of bankers are kind of dancing in the street because there's been regulations that have been going on for years and a lot of them have hindered credit,” Dimon said.
Mr. Dimon has also criticized the Biden administration's strict regulatory policies.
Meanwhile, President Trump is reportedly exploring ways to shrink or eliminate banking regulators altogether.
Advisors to the president-elect have publicly raised the possibility that the next administration might dissolve the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal on Friday.
Mr. Dimon, who heads the nation's largest lender, is a registered Democrat but has declined to publicly endorse a candidate this election cycle.
But people who were in contact with Mr. Dimon before the election said he had privately told the nation that he expected Vice President Kamala Harris to win.
In September, the Post's Charles Gasparino reported that Mr. Dimon was “likely to accept” working in the Harris administration.
Mr. Dimon has largely ruled out leaving the Wall Street giant for a government job, telling analysts that the chances of that happening are “almost zero.”
But in his widely read annual letter in April, he added, “I have always been an American patriot, and my country is more important to me than my company.”
The newspaper has reached out to JPMorgan Chase and Trump's transition team for comment.
