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jamie dimon
'Let Me Clear Things Up': Bernie Sanders Explains Wealth Tax to Wall Street Overlord Jamie Dimon
“If my 5% wealth tax on billionaires was enacted, you’d owe $135 million more in taxes, and a family of four making $150,000 or less would receive a $12,000 payment. Oh, and you’d still be worth more than $2.5 billion."
Mar 31, 2026
As billionaires nationwide rally to stop tax increases on the wealthy, US Sen. Bernie Sanders stepped in to "clear things up" for one of Wall Street's top power brokers after he railed against the proposal.
Following in the footsteps of California, where a popular ballot initiative to impose a one-time 5% tax on the state's 200 billionaires has gained steam, Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) introduced their own federal proposal earlier this month to tax those with net worths of more than $1 billion 5% of their annual household wealth.
The proposal is projected to raise $4.4 trillion over the next decade to provide direct payments to lower-income Americans, reverse Republicans' cuts to Medicaid and Affordable Care Act spending, expand Medicare, and build millions of affordable housing units, among many other expenditures.
Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, who is worth about $2.8 billion according to Forbes, appeared on Fox News on Tuesday and was asked by anchor Brian Kilmeade about Sanders' frequent accusations that billionaires "don't pay their fair share" in taxes.
"I don't know what he means by fair share," Dimon said. "I've listened to that my whole life, and I don't know what he means."
The two did not address the facts that may have led Sanders to draw such a conclusion. For instance, the senator often notes that fewer than 1,000 billionaires own more wealth than the bottom half of the US, around 175 million people.
Those billionaires also manage to pay a lower effective tax rate than the average American by wielding loopholes that allow them to exempt large chunks of their fortunes.
Sanders took to social media to respond to Dimon's incredulity about his idea of "fairness."
"Ok, Jamie: Let me clear things up for you," the senator wrote. "If my 5% wealth tax on billionaires was enacted, you’d owe $135 million more in taxes, and a family of four making $150,000 or less would receive a $12,000 payment."
"Oh, and you’d still be worth more than $2.5 billion," Sanders added. "Seems pretty fair to me."
Dimon's remarks came as billionaires are in a full-blown panic over the proposal for a one-time 5% tax in California, which is projected to raise about $100 billion, mostly to cover the Medicaid funding shortfall caused by the massive cuts in last year's GOP budget law.
A poll earlier this month showed that the measure, which will be put to voters in November, has about 2-1 approval, despite a more than $80 million effort by the state's elite—most notably Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page—to stop it in its tracks.
Dimon himself is not known to have contributed to the effort. But during his Tuesday appearance on Fox, he echoed one of the movement's oft-used talking points: that raising taxes on the rich leads to an "exodus" of wealth from financial hubs like New York and California.
As Forbes senior contributor Teresa Ghilarducci explained late last year, "Decades of economic research show that billionaire 'flight' is rare, exaggerated, and often confused with tax avoidance through accounting maneuvers rather than physical relocation."
Christopher Marquis and Nick Romeo similarly said last month in a piece for TIME that “despite multiple debunkings, the ‘millionaire exodus’ panic remains a popular narrative,” even though it is “frequently based on biased or sloppy arguments where anecdote replaces systematic evidence, correlation poses as causation, and every modest redistributive proposal is framed as an existential threat to prosperity.”
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Trump to Dine With Wall Street CEOs While Throttling Food Aid for Millions
Billionaire JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon will reportedly attend the White House dinner, held as nutrition assistance for millions of Americans remains in chaos.
Nov 12, 2025
US President Donald Trump is set to dine with finance industry titans at the White House on Wednesday as his administration continues to withhold nutrition assistance from millions of Americans, forcing them to rely on overwhelmed food banks and the generosity of their communities to stave off hunger.
Reuters reported that the private dinner is expected to include "several top business executives, including the chief executives of Nasdaq and JPMorgan Chase." BlackRock's Larry Fink and Goldman Sachs chief executive David Solomon were among those invited.
"The gathering underscores Trump's effort to deepen ties with corporate leaders as his administration rolls out new initiatives aimed at strengthening US capital markets and rebuilding critical domestic supply chains seen as vital to national security," Reuters reported.
News of the dinner came as the US Supreme Court on Tuesday extended an order allowing the Trump administration to continue withholding billions of dollars in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits as a legal fight plays out in a lower court and the government remains shut down.
Throughout the shutdown, which is expected to end this week after a group of Senate Democrats capitulated to the GOP, the administration has fought tooth and nail to avoid fully paying out SNAP funds, resulting in the first benefit lapse in the program's history. Over the weekend, Trump's Agriculture Department threatened to penalize any states that did not "undo" full November SNAP payments amid the court fight, prompting sharp pushback from Democratic governors.
"The president should not be directing states to take food out of the mouths of the hungry," said Maine Gov. Janet Mills. "His actions are hurting our most vulnerable people, while the president hosts lavish parties in Florida and builds a $350 million ball room at the White House."
Late last week, as HuffPost reported, Trump hosted a party at his Mar-a-Lago resort where guests dined on "filet, scallops, and a dessert on the same day that the Supreme Court ruled the SNAP food program that 1 in 8 Americans rely on would not be fully funded amid the shutdown."
"Just hours before millions of Americans lost federal food aid earlier this month, Trump hosted a lavish “Great Gatsby” themed party at his Mar-a-Lago resort," the outlet noted. "The theme of the night was 'A Little Party Never Killed Anyone.'"
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Spineless, Greedy CEOs Are Lining Up to Lick Trump’s Backside
At a time in American history when the most influential leaders of the U.S. need to stand up loudly and clearly for the rule of law, democracy, and decency, they are leading the charge in the opposite direction.
Dec 15, 2024
Anyone recall the time in the late summer of 2017 when prominent CEOs resigned from U.S. President Donald Trump’s business councils in protest at his defense of white nationalists who marched in Charlottesville, after Trump called them “very fine people”?
At the time, I thought America’s CEOs might become a bulwark against Trump’s extremism. But I was wrong. Within months, the CEOs were seeking to get back into Trump’s good graces.
After the insurrection unleashed by Trump against the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, many CEOs announced they wouldn’t be financing the campaigns of election deniers. CEOs of prominent social media banned Trump from appearing.
Tump is getting nothing but fawning encouragement to do anything he wants to do. That makes him even more dangerous.
I hoped their actions would limit Trump’s fanaticism and Trump’s growing MAGA movement. I was wrong again. Within two years, the CEOs were financing the campaigns of election deniers. Within three years, prominent social media were allowing Trump to return to their platforms and retell his lies.
I confess to having had a moment’s thought during the last eight months that Trump’s conviction on 34 criminal counts in Manhattan, his civil conviction for defamation in connection with what a judge termed “rape,” and his disgraceful nativism—describing poorer nations as “shit holes,” using terms redolent of Nazism to describe foreigners as “poisoning the blood” of Americans, and baselessly accusing Haitian immigrants of “eating our pets”—might force CEOs to rethink their willingness to give Trump a pass.
No such luck.
Amazon’s founder and chief, Jeff Bezos, who owns The Washington Post, had a rocky relationship with Trump in the first Trump administration. Angry with Bezos over unfavorable reporting in the Post, Trump questioned whether Amazon got a sweetheart deal with the U.S. Postal Service. Amazon, in turn, accused Trump of improperly pressuring the Pentagon to deny the company a major cloud computing contract.
Bezos apparently learned his lesson. After Trump was shot at a campaign event, Bezos called him, and on social media praised Trump’s “grace and courage under literal fire.”
Bezos didn’t allow the Post’s editorial board to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for president.
Now, Bezos says he’s “very optimistic” about the incoming Trump administration, and that Trump “seems to have a lot of energy around reducing regulation. And my point of view is, if I can help him do that, I’m going to help him, because we do have too much regulation in this country.”
Amazon is donating $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund, and said it will livestream the inauguration next month.
Not to be outdone in the groveling department, Meta’s (Facebook’s) CEO Mark Zuckerberg got a dinner invitation at Mar-a-Lago.
Meta is also putting $1 million into Trump’s inaugural fund.
“It’s an important time for the future of American innovation,” Meta said in a statement. “Mark was grateful for the invitation to join President Trump for dinner [Zuckerberg sought it] and the opportunity to meet with members of his team about the incoming administration.”
Stephen Miller, Trump’s incoming deputy chief of staff for policy, told Fox News that Zuckerberg “has been very clear about his desire to be a supporter of, and a participant in, this change we’re seeing all around America and the world, with this reform movement that Donald Trump is leading.”
In his first administration, Trump accused Facebook of filtering out views favorable to him. He even called for Zuckerberg to be jailed in retaliation for “plotting against” him during the 2020 election.
Now, like Bezos, Zuckerberg has turned to fawning. During the campaign, he had several private phone calls with Trump. After the assassination attempt, Zuckerberg told Trump he was “praying” for him, and told an interviewer Trump looked like a “badass” after pumping his fist to the crowd.
The suck-up list goes on and on. OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman also plans to donate $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund. “President Trump will lead our country into the age of AI, and I am eager to support his efforts to ensure America stays ahead,” Altman says.
Elon Musk and half of Silicon Valley is kissing Trump’s derrier.
Last January, speaking from the World Economic Forum’s confab in Davos, Jamie Dimon—chair and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, the largest and most profitable bank in the United States, and one of the most influential CEOs in the world—heaped praise on Trump’s policies while president the first time.
“Take a step back, be honest,” Dimon said. Trump “was kind of right about NATO, kind of right on immigration. He grew the economy quite well. Tax reform worked.”
Kind of right about NATO? Trump wanted the U.S. to withdraw from the pact—and may get his way after January 20. This would open Europe further to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression.
Kind of right on immigration? Even the conservative Cato Institute found that Trump reduced legal immigration but not illegal immigration. Trump refused to grant legal status to children of immigrants born in the United States or who grew up here, and tried to ban Muslims from the U.S.
Grew the economy quite well? In fact, under Trump the economy lost 2.9 million jobs. Even before the pandemic, job growth was slower than it’s been under Biden. The unemployment rate increased by 1.6 percentage points to 6.3%. The international trade deficit that Trump promised to reduce increased. The number of Americans lacking health insurance rose by 3 million.
Tax reform worked? Trump’s tax cut conferred most of its benefits on big corporations and the rich, while exploding the federal debt from $14.4 trillion to $21.6 trillion.
Why did Dimon—the most influential CEO in America—spout these lies in favor of Trump? Because he thought Trump had a good chance of becoming president, and Dimon wanted to be in his good graces.
Also, Dimon’s support for Nikki Haley had irked Trump. In a post on Truth Social in late November, Trump said “Highly overrated Globalist Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMORGAN, is quietly pushing another non-MAGA person, Nikki Haley, for president,” and “I’ve never been a big Jamie Dimon fan, but had to live with this guy when he came begging to the White House. I guess I don’t have to live with him anymore, and that’s a really good thing.”
Dimon felt it necessary to lick Trump’s backside. When Dimon did this, it was a signal to other CEOs to abase themselves, too.
The CEOs are all sucking up to Trump.
At a time in American history when the most influential leaders of the U.S. need to stand up loudly and clearly for the rule of law, democracy, and decency, they are leading the charge in the opposite direction—fawning over the most dangerous authoritarian America has ever had in the Oval Office.
Tump is getting nothing but fawning encouragement to do anything he wants to do. That makes him even more dangerous.
Other tech executives, like Elon Musk, who has stumped for the conservative movement and gave hundreds of millions of dollars to the Trump campaign, have forged a closer relationship with Mr. Trump. (Mr. Musk and Mr. Zuckerberg have developed such a tense relationship that the two spent 2023 challenging one another to a physical fight.) But executives at Meta hope that Mr. Zuckerberg can launch a new relationship with Mr. Trump by taking a softer touch with the incoming administration.
Gifts to inaugural committees, which do not have contribution limits, are popular among businesses and individuals eager to curry favor with an incoming administration. Mr. Trump’s inaugural committee is offering top-tier benefits to donors who contribute $1 million.
Amazon gave $57,746 to Mr. Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee, according to OpenSecrets, which tracks political donations. The company said the Biden campaign did not accept donations from tech companies in 2020.
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