JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon cautioned Mayor Zohran Mamdani about his hard-left vision for the Big Apple, warning the millennial mayor that he can relentlessly preach morality and ideology — but if the city keeps struggling, he’s failing to do his job.
“I don’t care what he says. What does he do? I will judge that … because you can talk about morality and ideology all you want, but if things don’t get better, you didn’t do a good job,” the Wall Street titan told Bloomberg TV Thursday.
“And my view, and I’m talking about him now, I have seen mayors who make statements, and they make it worse and worse and worse, you know, and they don’t know, they can’t get into details of why is affordable housing not there anymore? Why does this not work?
“And so, you know, hopefully he’ll learn. I want him to do a good job.”
Dimon’s biting comments came after he and other top business leaders met with Mamdani, who has pushed a slate of tax hikes targeting the wealthy and businesses since taking office in January.
The democratic socialist — who campaigned on a tax-the-rich agenda — has proposed jacking up corporate taxes, socking millionaires with a new 2% income tax hike, and slapping a luxury levy on second homes worth over $5 million across Gotham.
The savvy businessman cautioned that only time will tell whether Hizzoner’s ambitious lefty politics drive away the people and companies New York needs to survive and grow.
“Every city has to compete, and they have to compete at every level — arts, science, schools. That is what it is, I’m not inventing that,” Dimon told Bloomberg.
“He can be an ideologue, but he has to compete too, and we’ll see. Will he learn that he’s got to make the city a place where people want to grow and build and live and have families and work?” he added, pointing to global powerhouses like Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Nashville, Tenn.
“And people vote with their feet.”
