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JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has called President Donald Trump’s tariffs “too aggressive,” but still applauded him for trying.
Dimon, whose estimated net worth is $2.5 billion, told Fox 11 Los Angeles that Trump’s tariffs, which launched a global trade war, were “too large, too big and too aggressive” when he first implemented them. But the CEO says he’s still “very happy” Trump put the tariffs in place.
“The tariff stuff … was very big and very large and everybody all at once,” Dimon said. “I think it’s very important that they start to show progress in the deal.”
“These are deals in principle … a real trade deal would be 10 or 20,000 pages long,” he added. “But any progress is good.”
Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs sent the global economy into turmoil last month, with the president announcing 10 percent blanket taxes on imports from nearly every country. The president is also waging an intense trade war with China, placing a 145 percent tariff on its goods. Beijing then retaliated with its own 125 percent tariffs on U.S. products.
This week, Trump also threatened 100 percent tariffs on the toy-maker Mattel after the company said it would diversify its production to other countries, but not the U.S. He also announced a 100 percent tariff on movies made outside the U.S.
Trump has conceded he’s open to lowering the tax on Chinese goods to just 80 percent, but said the decision is ultimately up to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
The president also struck a trade deal with the U.K., slashing his tariffs on cars from 27.5 to 10 percent, up to 100,000 vehicles. Levies on steel and aluminum will also be reduced to zero, but a general 10 percent tariff on most other goods will remain. In return, the U.K. ended its tariff on ethanol from the US.
While Dimon is happy with Trump’s tariffs, many economists and American consumers are not.
A survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas reveals 58.9 percent of Texas executives say tariffs will negatively impact their businesses. Meanwhile, a new Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll discovered just 34 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s tariffs. Economists worldwide agree that consumers will pay the price for Trump’s tariffs as the taxes cause costs to skyrocket.
Dimon also praised Trump’s immigration policies, which have also proven unpopular.
“When you look at it, the border has been successful … after you eliminate the criminal element, I would try to work on real immigration reform,” he said. “We need seasonal workers, we need a path to citizenship for some of the undocumented but law-abiding immigrants, we need DACA.”
Fifty-two percent of Americans don’t back Trump’s immigration policies, an NPR/PBS News/Marist poll found last month. Similarly, Trump’s immigration approval rating fell from a net score of plus 18 points to a net score of just plus 10 points since mid-March, according to an Echelon Insights poll released mid-April.
This disapproval follows legal and public backlash against a series of high-profile immigration enforcement actions, including the Trump’s administration’s refusal to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a father and Salvadoran immigrant who was living in Maryland and wrongfully deported to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador.
The Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that the government must “facilitate” the return of Abrego Garcia, while a federal appeals court said the removal of U.S. residents “without due process” should be “shocking” to Americans’ “intuitive sense of liberty.”
Late last month, ABC News correspondent Terry Moran told the president he could “get him back” if he picked up the phone and called President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador. Trump conceded that he “could,” but that he still won’t.
“I could,” Trump said. “And if he were the gentleman that you say he is, I would do that. But he is not.”
The Independent has contacted the White House for comment.
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