WASHINGTON (AP) - The nation’s top elected leader and its most powerful banker are fighting over who is smarter.
Really.
President Donald Trump early Thursday scoffed at JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon’s claim that he could “beat” Trump and is just as tough and smarter than the president.
“The problem with banker Jamie Dimon running for President is that he doesn’t have the aptitude or “smarts” & is a poor public speaker & nervous mess - otherwise he is wonderful,” Trump tweeted. “I’ve made a lot of bankers, and others, look much smarter than they are with my great economic policy.”
He appeared to be responding to Dimon’s remarks first reported by CNBC on Wednesday, in which he told reporters at JPMorgan headquarters in New York that “I think I could beat Trump.”
“Because I’m as tough as he is, I’m smarter than he is. I would be fine,” Dimon said. “He could punch me all he wants, it wouldn’t work with me. I’d fight right back.”
Dimon also suggested that his wealth was earned, and not given to him by his father - another jab at Trump, whose father, Fred, gave him $1 million in financing, millions drawn against his future inheritance and a share of his real estate holdings.
Dimon quickly clarified that he is not running for president and should not have made the remarks.
The pair has a mixed relationship. The banking executive fully supported Trump’s corporate tax cuts that passed late last year, but has expressed frustration with the White House’s positions on immigration and trade.
Dimon, 62, is chairman of the Business Roundtable, a powerful lobbying group that represents the CEOs of the nation’s largest corporations, and is often seen as a voice for American business.
Trump often brags about his academic pedigree. He went to Fordham University and has an undergraduate degree from the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League school.
“I’m like a really smart person,” he’s said, and tweeted in 2013: “Sorry losers and haters, my I.Q. is one of the highest - and you all know it! Please don’t feel so stupid or insecure, it’s not your fault.”
Dimon has an MBA from Harvard Business School.
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