In what will be a series of posts on Donald Trump’s followers I have certain points I plan to make. But there’s no virtue in adhering to a particular order, so when something happens that derails my originally intended sequence, no problem. I’ll comment as the occasion arises.
In recent days has been such an occasion. It centers on a man about whom I’ve written several times before: Jamie Dimon, since 2005 chair and chief executive officer of JPMorgan, the largest bank in the world. (For some of my previous posts on Dimon see the link below.)
In the piece that I posted on April 22, 2022, titled “Leader Tenure Redux – the Case of Jamie Dimon,” I raised questions about the length of his tenure, which even a couple of years ago I deemed too long. Now I’m persuaded that I was right. For all that Dimon has accomplished on behalf of the financial colossus of which he’s been at the helm for nearly two decades, it’s past time for him to get out.
Why do I write this now with an even greater degree of certitude? Because of remarks he made last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Remarks that put him squarely in the column of Trump’s followers. Dimon would deny this, he would say he did no such thing. But, by normalizing Trump, which he did, he sent a signal to Wall Street, and to corporate leaders around the world, that Trump was not nearly so bad as some were suggesting.
Let me be as clear as I can. I consider Trump to be a bad leader – a leader who is both incompetent and unethical. Therefore, to normalize a leader like Trump is not only to be a follower, but also to be a bad follower.
What exactly did Dimon say that was so bad? “Take a step back, be honest” he told an interviewer on CNBC. Trump “was kind of right about NATO, kind of right on immigration. He grew the economy quite well. Tax reform worked. He was right about some of China. He wasn’t wrong about some of these critical issues.”
I will not here challenge each of these points, for they are not the point of this piece. Rather it is that by approving Trump’s positions and policies on each of these critical issues Dimon is giving him a pass. He is giving Trump a pass on who he is, on what he says, on what he has done in the past, on what he is doing in the present, and on what he says he will do in the future. Which is, among other terrible things – terrible if you happen to prefer democracy to autocracy – to be “a dictator on day one” and to call for “termination of the Constitution.”
A few months ago, Dimon suggested that his preferred 2024 presidential candidate was not Trump but Nikki Haley. I have no reason to think that Dimon changed his mind, which makes his talking points about Trump that much more offensive. And dangerous. For it appears his remarks about the former president are purely transactional. Dimon seems to have concluded that Trump could well be reelected. So, what Dimon is doing is protecting his neck or, more directly, covering his ass.
Let me be as clear as I can. As the rise of autocrats and dictators always and everywhere testifies, the only thing necessary for the triumph of bad leaders is bad followers. Therefore, if Donald J. Trump ever becomes president again, it will not be because he is so big and bold but because others, Dimon among them, are so small and sniveling.
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Spot on.
I agree with you Barbara, that good and bad is in the eye of the definer. With the sweep of your pen you declare Trump supporters as bad followers. Amazing take and you are entitled to it because, as you have said, what is good for one person may be bad for another. As a student of leadership for thirty years I would go in the opposite direction. I see the Obama’s as terrible leaders and Biden as even worse. If we are to play the unethical and incompetent label game a strong case can be made for Biden on both fronts and partly for Obama on the incompetent front. Thus, all those who follow them are bad followers. But here is the catch. I disagree with my last statement. If you think Obama is a good leader that is your opinion and you are fully entitled to it. But to so label millions of people as bad is exactly the problem with our discourse. We bring our labels, apply them, and their statement is proof of conviction. I fear you are falling into one of the great untruths of the University as framed by Jonathan Haidt, that the world is made up of good people and bad people. Our world is oh so simple, bad followers and good followers, and obviously you are the good followers, therefore making all others bad followers. You know full well the nuanced world of following. It is never this simple.