Trump tackles banker in slagging match over who is the smartest
THE United States’ elected leader and its most powerful banker are fighting over who is smarter. Really. President Donald Trump yesterday scoffed at JPMorgan Chase chief executive 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,” Mr 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 Mr Dimon’s remarks 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,” Mr Dimon said. “He could punch me all he wants, it wouldn’t work with me. I’d fight right back.” Mr Dimon also suggested his wealth was earned, and not given to him by his father – another jab at Trump, whose father Fred gave him $1m in financing, millions drawn against his future inheritance and a share of his real estate holdings. Mr Dimon quickly clarified that he is not running for president and should not have made the remarks. The pair have a mixed relationship. The banking executive fully supported Mr Trump’s corporate tax cuts that passed late last year, but has expressed frustration with the White House’s positions on immigration and trade. Mr Dimon (62) is chairman of the Business Roundtable, a powerful lobbying group representing CEOs of the US’s largest corporations and often seen as a voice for American business. Mr 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 has said, and tweeted in 2013: “Sorry losers and haters, my IQ is one of the highest – and you all know it! Please don’t feel so stupid or insecure, it’s not your fault.” Mr Dimon has an MBA from Harvard Business School.
‘I’m as tough as he is, I’m smarter thanhe is. I would be fine’
Meanwhile, former US president Jimmy Carter yesterday said he saw little hope of the US changing its human rights and environmental policies as long as Mr Trump is in the White House – but warned fellow Democrats looking to oust the current administration: Don’t go too far to the left. “Independents need to know they can invest their vote in the Democratic Party,” Mr Carter said in his annual report at his post-presidential centre in Atlanta, where he offered caution about the political consequences should Democrats “move to a very liberal programme, like universal health care”. That is delicate – and, Mr Carter admitted, even contradictory – advice from the 93-year-old, and underscores the complicated political calculations for Democrats as they prepare for the November mid-terms and look ahead to the 2020 presidential election. “Rosie and I voted for Bernie Sanders in the past,” Carter said, referring to wife Rosalynn and their support for the Vermont senator, an independent who identifies as a democratic socialist, over establishment favourite Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Democratic primary. He also pointed to California’s environmental policies as the model for combating climate change. Still, Mr Carter stressed, Democrats nationally must “appeal to independents” who are souring on the current administration. Mr Trump’s job approval rating, according to Gallup, has dipped to 40pc, mostly because of declining support among independents. Mr Carter alluded to arguments from self-identified progressives that Democrats will sacrifice votes on the left if they don’t embrace the liberal base: “I don’t think any Democrat is going to vote against a Democratic nominee,” he said, and insisted he’s not asking the left to sacrifice its goals, only to see that winning elections is necessary to accomplish any of them.