WASHINGTON, Jan 17 (Reuters) – JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon on Saturday confirmed he was not asked to be Federal Reserve chair, hours after U.S. President Donald Trump disputed a report saying he offered Dimon the role.
Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal reported Trump offered to nominate Dimon for Fed chair, although the news outlet added the JPMorgan boss took the offer as a joke. Trump in a Truth Social post on Saturday denied that report, and JPMorgan later affirmed the president’s assertion.
“There was no job offer,” Dimon said in a statement.
In an email to Reuters, bank spokesperson Trish Wexler said she should have been “more vigilant” in correcting the Wall Street Journal story before it was published.
Trump on Saturday also posted he plans to sue JPMorgan sometime in the next two weeks for allegedly “debanking” him following the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters.
Wexler said the bank would not discuss specific clients, but the bank believes “that no one’s account should be closed because of political or religious beliefs.”
“We appreciate that this Administration has moved to address political debanking and we support those efforts,” Wexler said.
Dimon, one of Wall Street’s most influential figures, has come out against some of the Trump administration’s policies.
Earlier this week, Dimon voiced support for the independence of the Fed, days after the Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into current Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whose term expires in May.
Dimon and top JPMorgan executives have also pushed back on the Trump administration’s proposed 10% cap on credit card interest rates, saying it would result in millions of households losing access to credit.
Trump on Wednesday suggested in a Reuters interview he was inclined to nominate either White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett or former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh to replace Powell.
(Reporting by Jason Lange, Chibuike Oguh and Deepa Seetharaman; Editing by Rod Nickel, Sergio Non and Chris Reese)
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