Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase’s chief executive, repeatedly warned about tariffs during President Trump’s first term. They were a threat to the economy, he said several times in 2018, and “wouldn’t be a positive,” he said in 2019.
Now, two days into Mr. Trump’s second term, Mr. Dimon has called tariffs a valuable “economic weapon.”
“If it’s a little inflationary, but it’s good for national security — so be it,” Mr. Dimon told CNBC on Wednesday from the World Economic Forum’s annual conference in Davos, Switzerland. “Get over it,” he added.
Mr. Dimon did not specify how he thought tariffs would improve national security.
Mr. Dimon’s approval is noteworthy, because the longtime head of JPMorgan, the nation’s largest bank, had long been a critic of Mr. Trump. During the president’s first term, Mr. Dimon once described himself as “smarter than he is,” in remarks the bank chief later said he regretted. Mr. Dimon backed Kamala Harris during the presidential campaign.
But that was then. With Mr. Trump saying he plans to impose 25 percent tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico by next month, and 10 percent tariffs on imports from China, Mr. Dimon appeared to take a fresh look at the policy.
“The question is how they get used,” he said on Wednesday. “Can they get — be used to bring — people to the table? Yes.”
A JPMorgan spokesman said that Mr. Dimon had not changed his views and that the issue was “not binary.”
