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JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon criticizes Trump's rejection of multilateral alliances a month before midterms, while Trump backer Peter Thiel faults the administration's loyalty tests and competence.
Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, has turned against Donald Trump and criticized the 47th US president's repudiation of the old multilateral rules-based order, according to a Wall Street Journal piece published last week.
Dimon Turns Against Trump
The intervention comes just a month before the congressional midterms, where Republicans are expected to receive a hammering. Dimon, a lifelong Democrat, has never been part of Trump's inner circle. Relations between the two have deteriorated precipitously over the past year. He played no part in the undignified and fawning scramble for presidential favors after Trump's election two years ago, and he wisely rebuffed soundings on serving in Trump's second administration as Treasury secretary.
Dimon has been highly critical of Trump's mooted plan to cap credit card interest rates at 10 percent, and he has refused to help fund Trump's White House ballroom. But he also had been careful not to overstep the mark and to give credit where he thought it was due, a stance that once helped rehabilitate Trump among US business leaders after the Capitol Hill riots.
In the run-up to Trump's second stab at the presidency, Dimon said: Take a step back, be honest. He was kind of right about NATO, kind of right on 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. If someone as worldly, wise and seasoned as Dimon thinks Trump is basically right, then it sanitises and promotes what he stands for. Now Dimon has changed his mind.
A Grand Alliance Takes Shape
In the Wall Street Journal last week, he wrote: A strong America with robust military and economic alliances is the foundation for a prosperous and peaceful world. That was an apparent rebuff of Trump's MAGA-driven approach to allies, trade and international relations. Peter Thiel, a long-standing Trump backer and Republican mega donor, has also voiced concerns about the administration.
In a recent interview, the Palantir co-founder and new owner of Axel Springer said he wished the president had chosen more competent people. He accused Trump of over-correcting for the mistakes of the first term with all these loyalty tests. You got sort of an administration staffed by not very smart but very loyal people. This is potentially dangerous territory for Thiel, because Palantir remains highly dependent on US government contracts.
But in another sign that the tide is turning against Trump-style politics, he said it anyway. Dimon's suggestion is that a grand alliance be struck with European and other like-minded democracies such as Canada, Japan, Korea, Australia and Mexico. In return for free trade with the US, Europe would agree to full implementation of proposals by former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi for countering loss of economic competitiveness, turbocharging a virtuous circle of rising prosperity for both jurisdictions.
If this sounds very much like the old post-war pre-Trump contract, that is because it is. It would be the Western alliance reborn. Yet it would be unwise to count on this happening in practice, because political opposition in Europe to some of Draghi's key recommendations remains strong. Dimon's suggestion shows the US is not yet entirely lost to the cause of multilateral solutions.
It is similar to what Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has been suggesting, only with the US at its centre, not as a potentially hostile force kicking in the other direction. Does Trump's presidency mark a permanent change in the geopolitical and economic weather, or is he a temporary aberration? From the very start of his second term, that has been the big question. Dimon's musings suggest the latter.
Economic Strain Threatens Republicans
So do the polls before next month's midterms. The US economy is in many respects booming, but it is not an electorally friendly form of growth. The leaders in this boom, the hyperscalers of the AI arms race, are generally unpopular with voters. Their investment spending binge generates plenty of jobs but disguises a great hinterland of economic grievance and frustration.
Much higher petrol, diesel and mortgage costs are wreaking havoc with the Republican vote, and it is Trump who is getting the blame. Ridiculously, Trump gives himself an A+ for everything that has happened in his second term. Sadly for him, voters do not appear inclined to agree. The president promised no more wars but then promptly started one.
No matter, the Iranians would be crushed, and it would be over in weeks. Seven months later, it is still going and there is little sign of a lasting resolution. With a month to go, Republicans' midterm prospects are catastrophically bad. The president promised lower interest rates and lower gas prices, but all he has managed so far is the reverse.
It is true that Gulf producers have found lots of workarounds for the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Exports of crude from the region are now said to be back to virtually pre-war levels. There is still a month to go, admittedly, but scarcely anyone thinks this is time enough to reverse either current cost-of-living pressures or the electoral fortunes of the Republican Party.
Trump's Political Momentum Fades
A year ago, it looked as if Trump might be one of the most consequential presidents in US history. As the months pass, that judgment looks ever more doubtful. Business leaders tend to bend with the wind. If they sense that things are going against the political incumbent, they nuance their position to fit.
But Dimon, a philosophical as well as a practising globalist, has never bought into Trump's America first nationalism. Trump's loss of political momentum has given him cover to start talking his mind. Even if he does lose both houses, Trump will presumably still attempt to govern as before through use of executive order. All the same, he will be tied up in legal knots for the remainder of his term, and his room for manoeuvre fiscally will be tightly restricted.
That should at least begin to reduce the upward pressure. To succeed, the West must pull and act together. Tearing it apart was never the right path.
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brisbanetimes:This story was compiled and edited by the HeadTopics newsroom and HT AI from the reports above.
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