Here's why Donald Trump lashed out at Jamie Dimon, threatened to sue JPMorgan — All you need to know

United States President Donald Trump has lashed out at Jamie Dimon, CEO of big American lender JPMorgan Chase & Co., following rafter the executive claimed that he was offered the role of US Federal Reserve chairman and turned it down.

Donald Trump also threatened the bank with a lawsuit, claiming that he was debanked after the 6 January Capitol riot in 2021.

Donald Trump refuted reports that Jamie Dimon was offered the job of US Fed chair. He wrote, late on 17 January, on Truth Social: “This statement is totally untrue, there was never such an offer, and, in fact, I’ll be suing JPMorgan Chase over the next two weeks for incorrectly and inappropriately DEBANKING me after the January 6th Protest”.

‘Scott Bessent doing fantastic job, no offer to Dimon’

Donald Trump also addressed speculation that Jamie Dimon would be interested instead in taking over as Treasury Secretary — a role currently held by Scott Bessent.

“Also, one was led to believe that I offered Jamie Dimon the job of Secretary of the Treasury, but that would be one that he would be very interested in. The problem is, I have Scott Bessent doing a fantastic job, A SUPERSTAR — Why would I give it to Jamie? No such offer was made there, or even thought of, either,” Donald Trump added.

In the lengthy post on his social media site, the US President also claimed that the Capitol riot was “a protest that turned out to be correct” and repeated his allegation that the 2020 US Presidential elections, where predecessor Joe Biden won, were rigged.

Donald Trump vs JPMorgan: What is debanking?

While Donald Trump in his post did not specify the alleged actions taken by JPMorgan nor what he plans to do legally. However, this is not the first time that the billionaire has claimed that the lender debanked him.

According to a Bloomberg report, in August last year, Donald Trump claimed that JPMorgan “discriminated against me very badly” after the Capitol riot, and allegedly closed accounts he had held with them for decades.

At the time, JPMorgan said it was hit with legal proceedings, investigations and reviews tied to the Trump administration’s fight against “debanking”, the report added.

Notably, debanking (or de-risking) is the practice of banks and financial institutions terminating or limiting their relationships with individual customers, companies or countries due to perceived risks, according to the CGAA.org.

These risks often include regulatory requirements, concerns over money laundering, poor credit history, involvement in high-risk industries or being a Politically Exposed Person (PEP), it added.

What have JPMorgan, Jamie Dimon said about the accusations?

In an emailed statement to Bloomberg Jamie Dimon clarified that he had received no job offers from the administration. He added, “I have enormous respect for Secretary Bessent and think he’s doing an excellent job for our country — better than I could have.”

Earlier, speaking at a US Chamber of Commerce event on 15 January, the banker had responded to questions about being considered for the role of Fed chair, responding: “Chairman of the Fed, I’d put in the absolutely, positively no chance, no way, no how, for any reason.”

As for running the Treasury, “I would take the call,” he said, as per the Bloomberg report.

In an emailed statement, JPMorgan spokesperson Trish Wexler told Bloomberg, “We agree that no one’s account should ever be closed because of political or religious beliefs. We appreciated that this administration has moved to address political debanking and we support those efforts.”

Notably, Donald Trump has not yet announced his pick to replace outgoing Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whose term ends in May 2026.

On 13 January, Jamie Dimon had weighed in on the Trump administration's investigations into the Fed and Powell, saying that chipping away at Fed independence is “not a great idea,” and could lead to higher inflation and interest rates over time, the report added.

(With inputs from Bloomberg)