Kamala Harris has lunch with JP Morgan chief Jamie Dimon: VP dines with finance exec who said Trump was 'right' about key issues and clashed with him as Attorney General
JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon had a one-on-one lunch at the White House last week with vice-president Kamala Harris, according to a report from the Financial Times.
The meeting took place even after Democrats reacted in horror to Dimon's comments complimenting former President Donald Trump during the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland in January.
Dimon warned Democrats they needed to be 'more respectful' of Trump's MAGA supporters.
Jamie Dimon angered Democrats earlier this year for saying positive things about Trump
As an Attorney General of California, Harris clashed with Dimon during a contentious phone call
'I think this negative talk about MAGA is going to hurt Biden’s election campaign,' he said in a CNBC interview.
Dimon describes himself as 'barely a Democrat' even though he frequently donates to Democrat candidates.
He even praised Trump's policies in the same interview.
“Take a step back, be honest. He was kind of right about NATO, kind of right on immigration. He grew the economy quite well. Trade tax reform worked. He was right about some of China,' Dimon said bluntly.
Despite his Trump-friendly remarks, Dimon met separately with White House chief of staff Jeff Zients while he was visiting the White House.
There was no reported meeting between Dimon and President Joe Biden.
Jamie Dimon, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of JPMorgan, visited the White House last week and had lunch with Harris.
U.S. President Donald Trump stands next to Jamie Dimon, chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co., left.
Dimon and Harris have a contentious history, as she was one of the Attorneys General who opposed a federal mortgage settlement with the big banks after the 2008 financial crisis.
In her memoir, Harris wrote of a contentious call she with Dimon when she was the Attorney General of California during negotiations over a legal settlement with the five biggest mortgage banks in the country.
'We were like dogs in a fight,' she wrote about the conversation that began with she and Dimon yelling at each other. She wrote that she took off her earrings before she picked up the phone to talk with Dimon, which was a sign of 'the Oakland in me.'
'As temperatures cooled, I got into the details of my demands so that he would understand exactly what I needed—not through the filter of his general counsel, but directly from me,' she concluded.
Harris ultimately settled the big banks case with the other Attorneys General, earning a $25 billion settlement for California.
After Trump was elected President in 2016, Dimon said he would work with the president.
'I would try to help any President of the United States because I’m a patriot,' he said during a call with shareholders in 2017.
But he grew tired of Trump's antics as president, at one point almost challenging him to a presidential contest.
Dimon famously said in 2018 that 'I think I could beat Trump' in a head-to-head presidential election, boasting he was 'as tough as he is' and 'smarter than he is.'
