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JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has some advice for New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani: Talk to the man who helped bring Detroit back from the dead. Dimon, who has been critical of Mamdani, suggested the incoming New York City mayor could learn a lot from outgoing Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan. “I hope he calls up…this mayor because that’s the way you learn. You say, ‘How did you do it? What did you do?’” Dimon told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Wednesday during a live interview alongside Duggan, who is stepping down from office next year and running for governor of Michigan. The JPMorgan CEO said he considers himself “patriotic” and is willing to help “any mayor, any governor.” Dimon is among the business leaders whose companies invested in Detroit when it was in dire straits. But Dimon suggested the jury is still out on whether Mamdani will succeed – and the key will be how he executes his vision. “I’ve seen a lot of mayors and governors, political leaders. Some grow into the job. …They fix the life, they fix the crime, they fix the hospitals. They fix the ambulance times,” Dimon said. On the other hand, Dimon said some mayors get overwhelmed by the job. “They never get around to it. They’re so befuddled with politics and ideology,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot of people when it comes to the execution part, they fall down so flat that it doesn’t matter where the heart is, they will fail to accomplish their goals.” Duggan, who has been credited with helping to revive Detroit after its 2013 bankruptcy, said he has not talked to Mamdani yet but was impressed by the enthusiasm in New York City on Election Day. “I happened to be in New York yesterday and saw a lot of young people very energized. Clearly dissatisfied. People want change, and now you have a new mayor who has a chance to deliver change,” Duggan told CNN. “I think he ought to be judged on what he does.” The Detroit mayor argued city leaders must be willing to work alongside business leaders. “I embraced Jamie Dimon at a time when people said this was maybe politically risky,” Dimon said, adding the way JPMorgan provided low-income housing and job training programs helped win over the public. “There is a way to embrace a partner that the community buys into. And that’s what we did.” JPMorgan announced Wednesday that its investment in Detroit has now surpassed $2 billion, and the bank’s main presence in the city is moving to Hudson’s Detroit, a new complex downtown.
