JAMIE DIMON SEEMED TO HAVE TRUMP FIGURED OUT—UNTIL THIS WEEK

JPMorgan's CEO had been rebuilding his relationship with US President Donald Trump, but the fight over Fed Chair Powell threatens to topple it

- Alexander Saeedy, Annamaria Andriotis, Emily Glazer & Brian Schwartz

Dimon, the head of JPMorgan Chase, well-known for impassioned stances on policy, had tempered his approach with Trump over the past year, offering overall expressions of support with careful criticism of specific policy details.

Jamie Dimon has worked carefully to rebuild his broken relationship with President Trump. The fight over Fed Chair Jerome Powell is threatening to blow it up again.

The head of JPMorgan Chase, well-known for impassioned stances on policy, had tempered his approach with Trump over the past year, offering overall expressions of support with careful criticism of specific policy details. It appeared to be working—he had met with the president and White House officials several times to discuss economic policy in recent months.

On Tuesday, Dimon joined the voices publicly warning the administration not to interfere with the Federal Reserve. Ironically, the president had offered him the job as Fed chair months prior during a meeting in the White House, according to people briefed on the discussion, though Dimon took the offer as a joke.

After Powell disclosed Justice Department subpoenas against the Fed over the weekend, Dimon spoke out in his defense. He said he didn't “agree with everything the Fed has done” but said almost everyone knew that “anything that chips away” at the central bank's independence “is probably not a good idea.”

The response from Trump was swift: Dimon is “wrong” and “it's fine what I’m doing, and we have a bad Fed person.”

“We should have lower rates,” Trump said on Tuesday. "Jamie Dimon probably wants higher rates, maybe he makes more money that way.”

Dimon, one of the most powerful CEOs in the country, has worked since Trump was reelected to stay on his good side, agreeing with much of Trump's agenda in public and reserving his harsher critiques for private conversations with Trump and administration officials.