After Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic primary for mayor, a number of billionaires (and some mere millionaires) began sounding the alarm at the possibility of a self-described democratic socialist running New York City. Hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb invoked Fidel Castro. Venture capitalist David Sacks warned people to “get on board with MAGA or prepare to be on Mamdani’s dinner menu.” Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman claimed that Mamdani’s “policies would be disastrous for NYC” and called on a “charismatic, intelligent, articulate, handsome, charming, young yet more experienced” politician to take on the Democratic nominee. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon branded Mamdani “a Marxist” and criticized Democrats for “falling all over themselves” to support his policies, which he called “ideological mush that means nothing in the real world.”
And while it seems unlikely that Dimon is going to start showing up to campaign events with Mamdani and urging New Yorkers to cast their vote for the guy, he does appear to have moderated his opinion on the candidate, if only slightly!
Speaking to CNBC on Thursday, the banking chief repeated his position, claiming that “a lot of the things [Mamdani] prescribes have never worked before,” but adding, “We’ll see.” Then he said that if Mamdani were to win the general election in November, he “would still try and help him do the best job he can.” Dimon’s comments were more than a little toned down compared to the ones he made earlier this month, wherein he said, “I have a lot of friends who are Democrats, and they’re idiots,” adding: “I always say they have big hearts and little brains. They do not understand how the real world works. Almost every single policy rolled out failed.”
As for his fellow finance titans, their concerns about Mamdani presumably have to do with the candidate’s proposals to raise New York’s top corporate tax rate from 7.25% to 11.5% and levy a 2% tax on individuals earning more than $1 million per year, changes that his campaign has said would raise $9 billion in tax revenue. But Mamdani would need Governor Kathy Hochul to get on board with these moves, and she’s already shot them down. And since winning the primary, he’s said that while he doesn’t think billionaires should exist, he wants to “work with everyone, including billionaires.” As Kathryn Wylde, president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City, told Vanity Fair’s Chris Smith earlier this month, “[Mamdani] called me [shortly after the primary] and said, ‘I want to thank you because you were willing to meet with me when I was polling at 1%.’ He’s calling up everybody I ask him to call, saying he wants to work together, giving them his cell number. Jamie Dimon famously said that during eight years as mayor, [Bill] de Blasio never called him. He’s doing a lot more than Bill ever did.”
Earlier this month, former governor Andrew Cuomo, who resoundingly lost to Mamdani in the primary, announced that he would run as an independent in the general election, as will current mayor Eric Adams. A new poll released this week shows Mamdani beating both of them by double digits.
