Jamie Dimon says he hopes DOGE is successful because the US government is ‘not very competent’

• JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said he supports efforts to make the government more efficient.
• “The government is inefficient, not very competent, and it needs a lot of work,” Dimon said.
• Dimon also said the US has become a “highly bureaucratic, litigious, over-regulated society.”

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said he has a “wait-and-see attitude” regarding the Trump administration and the White House DOGE office, but he’s hopeful DOGE will succeed.

“More effective government — more efficient government — isn’t bad. It’s actually a good thing,” Dimon said in an interview with CNBC on Monday during JPMorgan’s Global Leveraged Finance Conference in Miami.

When asked about how DOGE, tariffs, and President Donald Trump’s slew of executive orders could impact the economy, Dimon said it’s too soon to say and will depend on how the changes are implemented.

But in general, he said he supports efforts to make the government more efficient and effective.

“The government is inefficient, not very competent, and it needs a lot of work,” he said. “It’s not just waste and fraud, it’s outcomes. Why are we spending the money on these things? Are we getting what we deserve? What should we change? I think doing that needs to be done.”

DOGE aims to reduce government spending and waste and improve efficiency. Much of its early efforts have focused on cutting the federal workforce and targeting specific federal agencies, like USAID.

“I’m hoping it’s quite successful,” he said of DOGE.

Dimon has previously had a rocky relationship with Elon Musk, a special government employee closely associated with DOGE, though the two have appeared to be on better terms over the past year. Dimon said last month he and Musk “hugged it out” and that the billionaires have settled some of their differences.

Dimon has also said he supported the idea of a department of government efficiency and that he’d love to be helpful to DOGE if he can.

In the CNBC interview on Monday Dimon also expressed support for the Trump administration’s deregulation stance, saying the US is a “bureaucracy completely run amok.”

“We have become a highly bureaucratic, litigious, over-regulated society, and it’s bad,” he said, adding that he’s not opposed to all regulations but that they’ve gotten “excessive.”

After the election in November, Dimon said bankers were “dancing in the street” at the prospect of Trump slashing regulation.

On Monday he said changes to regulations could free up capital to grow the economy and “free the banks to what they’re supposed to do.”

“We have the best natural system in the word,” he said. “Let’s keep it that way. Let’s not hamstrung it.”