JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who oversees the country’s largest bank, said Wednesday that Americans need to “get over it” when it comes to President Donald Trump’s tariff plans driving up prices, as many economists have warned they will.
People should be fine with inflation because national security ― something Trump claims the tariffs will aid ― is more important, Dimon told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin during an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
“If it’s a little inflationary, but it’s good for national security, so be it. I mean, get over it,” he said of tariffs, which are essentially import taxes. “National security trumps a little bit more inflation.”
Forbes puts Dimon’s net worth at $2.7 billion.
Trump has claimed that the aggressive tariffs he plans to impose will not only make American factory jobs skyrocket and shrink the federal deficit but that they’ll also somehow lower the price of food and other consumer goods. Economists have warned the opposite will happen, saying tariffs will force companies to simply pass along the added costs to American consumers.
He later conceded after winning the election on the backs of voters lured in by his economic promises that he “can’t guarantee” tariffs won’t jack up prices.
Dimon described tariffs as “an economic tool” that can have different effects on the economy.
“They’re an economic weapon, depending on how you use it, why you use it, stuff like that,” he said. “Tariffs are inflationary and not inflationary.”
We Won’t Back Down
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The tariffs Trump implemented during his first term neither boosted factory jobs nor had much impact on the economy. But experts warn the scale on which he’s threatening to do them this term could trigger drastic inflation. On his first day in office, he said on social media that he’d be imposing 25% tariffs on all goods imported from Mexico and Canada until those countries stop undocumented immigration into the U.S. to his satisfaction. He also vowed a 10% tariffs on all goods imported from China.
Dimon, who served on Trump’s short-lived business advisory forum during his first stint in the White House, never publicly endorsed anyone in last year’s presidential race, though he did say he’d prefer Nikki Haley win the Republican nomination over Trump. The New York Times later reported that Dimon was privately supporting Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.