Jamie Dimon likes Elon Musk's plans to slash government spending: 'We really need to do it'
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon on Tuesday showered praise on Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk’s plans to audit government spending, despite the pair’s checkered past.
While speaking with Former President Donald Trump last month, Musk pitched the idea of a federal commission dedicated to addressing how efficiently agencies, like the Federal Aviation Administration or NASA, spend the funds allocated by Congress. Trump has said Musk agreed to lead the taskforce, although the world’s richest man said he wouldn’t need to be paid or given a title for such a task.
Musk has supported naming the commission the “Department of Government Efficiency,” with its acronym — DOGE, being a reference to his favorite meme-based cryptocurrency. Although exact details of what a commission would look like are scarce, Trump has said it would conduct a financial and performance audit of the “entire” federal government and issue recommendations for reforms.
“This idea about having an efficiency commission, I actually like the idea,” Dimon told CNBC-TV18 earlier this week, praising Former Vice President Al Gore’s “reinventing government” initiative of the 1990s.
The support from Dimon comes months after The Wall Street Journal reported that the pair were patching up their relationship, which had been strained since 2016 when JPMorgan declined to underwrite leases for Tesla’s electric cars. Musk, according to the Journal, called a bank executive screaming and threatened to pull Tesla’s business, before saying “F—k you.” Dimon then reportedly told Musk his firm wouldn’t be bullied.
JPMorgan in 2021 also sued Tesla and Musk for $162 million that it said Tesla owed for a trade the bank helped arrange seven years prior. Tesla countersued and alleged JPMorgan was angry it lost Tesla’s business.
Musk has frequently taken aim at federal spending and the growing federal debt, which Trump widened by $8.4 trillion during his first term in office. His successor, President Joe Biden, added $4.3 trillion to the debt over the first three years and five months of his presidency.
And in recent weeks, he has increased his criticism of how federal agencies — especially the ones tasked with regulating his companies — carry out their work.
Musk’s SpaceX — and the billionaire himself — have attacked the FAA for its slow approach to approving a fifth launch of the firm’s Starship megarocket, as well as a handful of proposed fines that amount to $633,009. Musk has called for the agency to instead focus on Boeing’s Starliner debacle, although that vehicle is licensed and regulated by NASA.
SpaceX on Tuesday rejected any allegations that it had violated laws and took aim at FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker, claiming in a letter that “every statement” he made before Congress earlier that day was incorrect.
“America is being smothered by legions of regulators, often inept & politically-driven,” Musk wrote on Tuesday.
Besides a job leading DOGE, Trump has floated having Musk consult as an unofficial advisor on AI or other issues. Bloomberg News in May reported that Musk has has counseled Trump on cryptocurrency policy and could be given a job advising Trump on the issue.
Musk in 2017 resigned from his spot on Trump’s White House advisory councils after the then-president withdrew from the Paris climate agreement, calling the move “not good for America or the world.” In an interview with Trump earlier this month, Musk said climate change wasn’t an issue that needed immediate attention and walked back his earlier, harsher comments on the oil and gas industry.
