Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, long considered Wall Street’s most Democrat-friendly executive, has broken with the party this year, calling them “idiots” with “little brains” in July. He added some fierce criticism of New York City’s leading mayoral candidate, the Democratic Socialist assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, from Queens, calling him “more a Marxist than a socialist.” Then, something interesting happened, as Bloomberg reported on a Mamdani charm offensive that included direct engagement with Dimon. The New York Times‘ Dealbook reported recently that this effort has only deepened since, with Mamdani talking to many “key power brokers” behind the scenes. When Dimon sat down with Fortune at the Most Powerful Women summit earlier this week, he said he will be around to help.
“If he becomes mayor, so be it,” Dimon told Fortune editor-in-chief Alyson Shontell. Without directly alluding to any private conversations between the two, Dimon wondered aloud, “what does he really think? You know, he was part of that socialist democratic thing, which literally is more Marxist than socialist — and I read it — but I don’t know what he believes in that.” Dimon added that Mamdani is “talking to a lot of people, he’s convinced a lot of people [that] he’s going to change [and] he wants to learn.” Dimon shrugged, saying he doesn’t know if that will truly be the case. “You know, some people are what they are, they’re not going to change.”
