JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon could become Treasury Secretary if Trump becomes US President

JPMorgan Chase & Co. chief executive Jamie Dimon

JPMorgan’s chief executive officer Jamie Dimon could be in consideration to be appointed as the US secretary of Treasury and US Federal Reserve's chair Jerome Powell won't be forced out if Republican candidate Donald Trump gets elected in the presidential election set to take place in November.

JPMorgan declined to comment on Trump's comments. Powell's term as chair expires in 2026, while his seat on the Fed Board of Governors expires in 2028. The Trump interview was conducted in late June and published on July 16, according to Bloomberg.

In an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, Trump said Dimon “is somebody that I could consider” for the position of secretary of the Treasury. The former president was discussing appointments to key economic positions of the government if he comes back to power.

This is in contrast with the earlier comments of Trump, where he had called the top banker, who is considering a career in politics, a “highly overrated globalist”, according to the business magazine.

Dimon, who is not seen as a Trump supporter, had earlier made some positive remarks on the Republican candidate. “Be honest, he was kind of right about NATO, kind of right about immigration. He grew the economy quite well. Tax reform worked. He was right about some of China. … He wasn’t wrong about some of these critical issues, and that’s why they’re voting for him,” Dimon had said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January.

Also read: Donald Trump wants to bring corporate tax rate to as low as 15% if elected as US President

Dimon, like many other corporate executives, had condemned the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters who made an unsuccessful attempt to prevent Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 elections that Trump lost to Biden.

On the position of chairman of US Federal Reserve, Trump denied having any plans to oust Powell.  The former president dispelled any speculation and said he’ll let Powell finish his tenure.

“I would let him serve it out, especially if I thought he was doing the right thing," Trump said.

Powell said on July 15 that he has no plans to leave his post as head of the US central bank before his term expires. Powell was first appointed to the Fed Board of Governors by former President Barack Obama, but it was Trump who picked him to lead the central bank, a post Powell assumed in early 2018.

Trump turned against him soon after, railing against the interest rate hikes that the Fed delivered during Powell's first year at the helm. Trump went so far as to discuss firing the Fed chief, although aides later said Trump came to the conclusion that he likely did not have the power to do so.

Trump said in the Bloomberg interview that the Federal Reserve should abstain from cutting rates before the November elections in which the Republican presidential candidate faces Democrat Biden.

Powell has been asked repeatedly over the last week whether the election would play into the Fed's decision on whether to cut rates, and Powell said again on Monday that he and other central bank policymakers do not take politics into account in their decision-making.

In addition to targeting China for new tariffs of anywhere from 60 percent to 100 percent, he said he would impose a 10 percent across-the-board tariff on imports from other countries, citing complaints about foreign countries not buying enough US goods.

With inputs from Reuters