JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said he would offer his assistance to Zohran Mamdani, the Democrat Socialist frontrunner in New York City’s mayoral race — despite previously deriding him as a “Marxist.”

Dimon, whose bank is among the city’s largest private employers, has been openly skeptical of Mamdani’s economic agenda, particularly his plan to raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy to fund social programs such as free public buses, childcare, publicly run grocery stores, and rent freezes, Bloomberg reports.

In 2020, Mamdani urged defunding the police, disparaging the New York Police Department as “a major threat to public safety,” “wicked & corrupt” — and an institution beyond reform.

Dimon, speaking at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women conference in Washington Tuesday, admitted he may not agree with Mamdani’s platform but said he would still “call him and offer to help.”

He framed the pivot as pragmatism: “Doesn’t mean I agree with him. I have to deal with the world I got, you know, not the world I want.”

“But it is odd to have the bastion of American capitalism, you know, with a socialist getting that job,” Dimon added, concluding:

“So be it.”

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Mamdani’s economic platform directly challenges Wall Street and big business. His proposal would raise corporate and high-earner taxes to finance a slate of public investments — measures he argues are essential for equity and long-term prosperity.

These plans have rattled New York’s financial executives and real estate developers, many of whom fear higher taxes will drive away investment, shrink the city’s tax base, diminish property values, and contribute to rising crime and a decline in quality of life.

Still, Mamdani has reportedly held private meetings with business leaders, including Dimon, in a calculated charm offensive to ease concerns and modify his positions. The candidate maintains that his policies are designed to restructure — not destroy — the city’s economy, redirecting resources toward working-class residents rather than corporate interests.

Dimon’s recent remarks highlight a clear contradiction in his posture. While professing a willingness to “help” if Mamdani wins, he has repeatedly mocked him in public forums, labeling him as “more of a Marxist than a socialist” and deriding Democrats as “idiots” obsessed with ideology over substance.

At an event in Dublin in July, Dimon warned against supporting Mamdani, claiming his platform relied on “ideological mush that means nothing in the real world.”

“I have a lot of friends who are Democrats — and they’re idiots,” Dimon said. “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.”

Dimon nevertheless said, “New York will survive,” just as it did under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, with whom business leaders also clashed.