Jamie Dimon on Iran, Trump and why he’s optimistic about AI | NPR’s Newsmakers
Up First from NPR
NPR
4.6 • 59K Ratings
🗓️ 7 April 2026
⏱️ 32 minutes
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Summary
This week, Dimon released his annual letter to shareholders — a document that comments on banking issues and also assesses risks to the economy, from inflation to the war in Iran. The letter asserts his company is ready for anything — noting, among other things, that it has profited during economic booms and also during recessions.
In this episode of NPR’s Newsmakers, Dimon tells host Steve Inskeep he didn’t worry much about the way President Trump’s contradictory statements tend to send financial markets sliding and soaring again, saying, “I have to deal with the world I got.”
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, this is Steve Inskeep with a special episode of Up First, a conversation from our sister program, NPR's Newsmakers. |
| 0:10.5 | In each episode, we interview some of the most influential people of our time. |
| 0:14.3 | You can watch the show on NPR's YouTube channel or search for it wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:23.2 | Jamie Diamond is the CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase, this nation's largest bank. |
| 0:29.3 | He's also connected to many of the wealthy and powerful in New York and here in Washington, |
| 0:34.2 | where we spoke with Diamond and the J.P. Morgan offices on the occasion of an annual |
| 0:38.8 | letter in which he gives his opinions about almost everything. Thanks for welcoming us here. |
| 0:45.9 | It's good to be here. Thank you. Thanks for coming here. And I read your letter. It's really compelling. |
| 0:51.4 | Yeah, absolutely. Every page. It is more interesting than the average corporate document because you have opinions |
| 0:57.5 | on many topics. |
| 0:59.4 | And that's my first question. |
| 1:01.1 | Why do you feel you should as a CEO be speaking out on topics all across the news when you |
| 1:06.4 | probably could stay silent? |
| 1:07.8 | Yeah. |
| 1:08.1 | So it's very important. |
| 1:09.3 | So when I do these letters, I think to myself, what's important to the company, what's important to employees, what's important to our shareholders. I actually make a list of questions, talk to people. I want to answer the big important questions. And the thing you're asking about, Mozart's about the company, but the last section, which is about America and the world, I always say it's predicated upon the fact that if America doesn't do well, J.P. Morgan will have a real hard time doing well, and that we have a deep interest in that. And the second reason is that, you know, policy, we shouldn't, I'm not saying that government can't do it. We shouldn't rely on government alone. Collaboration works. Collaboration works in Detroit. It worked in World War II. It worked in all these things. |
| 1:47.4 | So I think it's good for business to get involved, to bring their expertise to bear, to help |
| 1:51.0 | all the citizens of this country. And that helps the country and your company. |
| 1:55.2 | Do you assume that the interests of the country are about the same as the interests of your |
| 1:58.7 | company? No, but I think that we have common |
| 2:00.8 | interest so that, you know, we all, if all of our citizens do better, we'll all do better. I think a lot |
| 2:06.2 | of people come to Washington, tons of special interest groups. I think they're like 17,000 lobbying |
... |
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