The president denied offering Jamie Dimon the Federal Reserve chair position in the same social media post announcing the lawsuit.
President Trump announced Saturday that he will sue JPMorgan Chase “over the next two weeks” for allegedly “DEBANKING” him following the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot, according to Politico. The announcement came one day after the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had offered JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon the position of Federal Reserve chairman earlier last year.
In the same Truth Social post announcing the lawsuit, Trump denied the Journal’s reporting. “This statement is totally untrue, there was never such an offer,” he wrote, before pivoting to the debanking allegations.
Dimon reportedly interpreted the offer as a joke, according to the Journal. Asked Thursday whether he would take the role, Dimon told Bloomberg: “Absolutely, positively no chance, no way, no how, for any reason.”
Escalating Tensions
The lawsuit announcement caps a week of mounting conflict between the president and the nation’s largest bank. Trump has repeatedly criticized Dimon for defending Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, whom the Justice Department is criminally investigating. Dimon said he has “enormous respect” for Powell and warned that undermining Fed independence could raise inflation expectations.
Trump responded Tuesday: “Jamie Dimon probably wants higher rates. Maybe he makes more money that way.”
JPMorgan executives have also publicly opposed Trump’s proposal to cap credit card interest rates at 10 percent, with a deadline of January 20—three days from now. “It would be very bad for consumers, very bad for the economy,” Chief Financial Officer Jeremy Barnum said on the bank’s earnings call Tuesday. The bank’s stock has fallen approximately 5 percent this week.
The Debanking Claims
Trump has claimed that JPMorgan closed or restricted his accounts after January 6, 2021, framing the action as politically motivated retaliation coordinated with the Biden administration. He has folded this into a broader narrative about banks “debanking” conservatives.
JPMorgan has denied closing accounts for political reasons. In a statement, spokesperson Trish Wexler said, “We agree that no one’s account should ever be closed because of political or religious beliefs.”
The Trump Organization previously sued Capital One over similar allegations. In his Saturday post announcing the JPMorgan lawsuit, the president described the January 6 riot as “a protest that turned out to be correct for those doing the protesting” and added: “The Election was RIGGED!”
JPMorgan’s stock closed Friday at $243.52. Dimon’s net worth is approximately $2.9 billion.
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