Bill Ackman calls on JPMorgan CEO Dimon to run for US president elections

During an interview with Bloomberg TV, Dimon was asked if he would ever consider public office, he replied saying, “I love my country, and maybe one day I’ll serve my country in one capacity or another.”

In a tweet on Wednesday, Ackman wrote, “Our country is at risk with $32T (trillion) of debt with no end to massive deficits in sight, heading into a recession at a time of great political uncertainty…. Clearly he is thinking about running. I can’t imagine a better time for him to do so.”

Recently, there have been speculations about Dimon as potential run for President in the future. During a press conference in 2018, he had reportedly quipped about hypothetically campaigning against then-president Donald Trump.

“I think I could beat Trump … because I’m as tough as he is, I’m smarter than he is,” he had said, according to a report.

Dimon later walked back on those comments, saying that the remark proved he would not make a good politician. “If he decides to get out of banking, I think he would be really good in politics,” former President Bill Clinton once said of Dimon.

Meanwhile, Dimon is currently on his first visit to China since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ackman, who runs Pershing Square Capital Management and has a bulging Rolodex filled with Wall Street bankers, corporate executives and politicians, has been using Twitter more extensively ever since he announced last year that he was retiring from “vocal” activist investing life.

He has most recently weighed in on the banking crisis and urged the United States to raise FDIC insurance to shore up confidence.

In the 2016 presidential election, Ackman had urged former New York City Mayor and billionaire Michael Bloomberg to run for president.

(With inputs from Reuters)

Updated: 01 Jun 2023, 08:23 AM IST