Jamie Dimon for President

Why I’m opting out of the Trump-Biden quagmire

Photo credit: Axios

I was in a political quandary last week, so I called a friend in California who can usually help cut through the fog. He didn’t help.

Like me, he isn’t excited about either candidate for President. Like me, he agrees with some of Trump’s policies, but thinks he’s way too crazy and that Biden, while likable enough, is spending and equivocating America into a ditch. Plus, there’s the age thing and the implications of an abbreviated term. The Trump-Biden matchup, of course, is far more nuanced and complex than that simple comparison, but by now we’re all familiar with the pros and cons.

I voted for Hillary in 2016 just because I couldn’t pull the trigger on Trump; I voted for Biden in 2020 for the same reason. Now I’m done. And I’m not alone.

My friend and I represent about 25 percent of voters in America, according to Pew Research — voters who would just as soon not cast a ballot for either candidate.

“So, what are you going to do?” I asked him.

“I don’t know, I think I’m just going to throw my vote away,” he replied. “Or maybe I’ll just vote for the Libertarian.”

Neither one of us could even name the Libertarian candidate on the ballot. (His name is Chase Oliver, by the way, whose underwhelming campaign pitch is “I’m under 80, I can speak in complete sentences and I’m not a convicted felon.”)

Despondent, I told him that maybe I’d go on a vote “strike” and just sit this one out. But we both agreed that, on principle, you can’t opt out of democracy just because you don’t like the incumbent candidates. Democracy favors those who show up.

So, I thought about it. If I had to pick someone to be President, who would it be?

It would be someone with proven leadership qualities who takes a wide-angle view of the world. Someone, preferably, with deep business experience — it not directly, then at least a deep appreciation of the value of free enterprise, which, along with democracy and community, is the bedrock of America. Someone who is intelligent, diplomatic and articulate. Someone who knows how to build things from the ground up and has a track record to prove it. Someone with a deep love for the founding principles of America.

Jamie Dimon has all of those qualities.

Dimon, CEO of JPMorganChase, the largest bank in America, is just what the country needs right now.

Dimon puts himself right in the middle of the political spectrum, at the radical center. “My heart is Democratic, but my brain is kind of Republican,” he told CNBC this year. Churchill would have been proud of him.

Dimon and his bank are a business incubator and wealth generator. In 2023, JPMorganChase extended credit and raised capital totaling $2.3 trillion for consumer and institutional clients. The bank lubricates the economy by moving nearly $10 trillion in over 120 currencies and 160 countries every day. It’s a trusted custodian of more than $32 trillion in customer assets and maintains a balance sheet of $3.8 trillion.

Dimon has the best interests of the country at heart; in other words, he’s a patriot. JPMorganChase stepped up to purchase the failed First Republic Bank in 2023, bringing critical stability to the American banking system in a fragile period. Over the past 10 years, JPMorganChase has paid more than $46 billion in federal, state and local taxes, as well as contributing $10 billion to the FDIC to safeguard the banking system. How’s that for a “fair share,” Sen. Sanders?

Dimon understands the true meaning of a stakeholder economy. “Shareholder value can be built only if you maintain a healthy and vibrant company, which means doing a good job of taking care of your customers, employees and communities,” he told shareholders last year. “How can you have a healthy company if you neglect any of these stakeholders?”

Dimon cares deeply about the rising polarization in our culture.

“None of our current issues is exclusively owned by Democrats or Republicans,” Dimon wrote in an essay for The Dialogue Project at Duke University (where I serve on the Advisory Board).

“To the contrary, it is clear that partisan politics is stopping collaborative policy from being implemented, particularly at the federal level. This is not some special economic malaise we are in. This is about our society. We are unwilling to compromise. We are unwilling or unable to create good policy based on deep analytics. And our government is unable to reorganize and keep pace in the new world.

“Plain and simple, this is a collective failure to put the needs of society ahead of our personal, parochial and partisan interests. If we do not fix these problems, America’s moral, economic and military dominance may cease to exist.”

Dimon is pragmatic. Concerned that colleges have lost their ability to help place graduates in jobs, he founded the New York Jobs CEO Council, a nonprofit that placed 10,000 low-income New Yorkers in jobs paying above $69,000 last year.

He says it has “nothing to do with DEI” and that he’s “not interested in labels.”

“This has to do with the system (not) working and (needing) to be fixed,” he said. “If we leave behind whole parts of our society we’re making a huge mistake for our country.”

Trump was a transactional president. Biden is an expedient president. Dimon’s leadership is based on principles — wealth creation for shareholders and stakeholders, respect for people, building businesses that last and not spending beyond one’s means.

America could use some pragmatic leadership right now, built on sound business principles. Trump came from the business world, but without principles beyond maximizing personal wealth. Dimon understands the requirements of running a successful business for the long term.

One of the most existential challenges we face as a country is our metastasizing debt. A president who knows how to run a $3.8 trillion balance sheet may not be able to fix the national debt in a single term, but could at least create the pathway toward a solution.

A president with deep business experience knows how to analyze problems and create solutions based on data, not impulse or emotion. They know how to align diverse teams to reach an objective. When faced with failure, they’re not afraid to rethink and reorganize. They understand the value of partnerships.

Jamie Dimon has all of these qualities. He’s 68 years old. He’s telegenic. He’s prevailed over throat cancer and emergency heart surgery. He’s a survivor.

I’m writing in Jamie Dimon for president. Viewed through a transactional lens, I may be throwing my vote away. But viewed through the lens of democracy, integrity and personal values, I’ll be able to sleep a lot better at night.

Peace out.