Detroit mayor and JPMorgan CEO on the city's revitalization, elections, and state of economy

Among the historic results yesterday, Detroit voters elected the city's first female mayor. Mary Sheffield will replace outgoing mayor Mike Duggan. Duggan is now running as an independent in the Michigan governor's race. His time in office saw Detroit through a critical time, facing numerous challenges, including the Great Recession and the pandemic. It did get an assist from the country's biggest bank, JPMorgan Chase, which invested in the Motor City. CNN's Aaron Burnett is in Detroit and joins us now with Mayor Duggan and JPMorgan CEO, Jamie Dimon. Aaron. All right, Borson, Brianna, thanks so much. And you know, we're here, obviously, in the space that JPMorgan is renovating some of the investments you've put into this city. And we're here the day after Election Day. Mayor, and I know you're running for governor. Jamie, sitting in this space would not have been possible. It actually would have been kind of unthinkable. Not very long ago, you know, I'm thinking coming in and out of Detroit. In 2013, Detroit was done. It had filed for bankruptcy. It was sort of, you know, this look back in history. It was great, and now it's dead. You started investing in the city a year later. And now it's about $2 billion, I think you're gonna say, in investment and investment that you've put in here. What has actually changed because of that? Yeah, so we were always a big bank here. We're the old National Bank of Detroit. But I knew it had gone through a bankruptcy, so we always wanted the city to do well. It was one of the few cities that didn't have a renaissance in America. I was watching, I think, TV or something. I was watching this man who had been elected, you know, a white man in a town, more than 80% black, on write-in votes, you know, talking about, I want to fix the city. Anyone can help me, civic society, business. And we called him up. Since then, the unemployment rate's gone from 23% to 8%. They've actually started, their population's been shrinking. There were 40,000 abandoned homes. I don't know what the number is today. Population's going up now. There are new plants coming in, which you haven't had the benefit yet. Like, some of these plants are gonna add 25,000 jobs. The community's gotten safer. Wages have gone up. And our investment is a small part. I mean, Michael Bloomberg was here. Dan Gilbert, I mean, God bless him, what he's done for this city. But he got everyone to work, to help lift it up with collaboration, good policy, and it shows you that it works. So one of the first calls, Mayor, that you received when you became mayor was actually from him. I know you've talked about that. And, you know, there's a lot of things you could've done, but you chose to roll out the red carpet and say, please come in, help if you wanna help. You wanted big business, and you wanted big business to be a part of rebuilding Detroit. Would Detroit be where it was, or where it is now, if you did not have the investment from JP Morgan and other big businesses like Dan? Well, you know, I ran and said, we're gonna end this black versus white city versus suburban politics that had taken Detroit down for years. And the people of Detroit voted for me and expected me to do that. And so I reached out across the country and said, we want help. And I didn't know when the president of the largest bank in the country calls. I was surprised he even knew my name. But they came in and started at 50 million and 100 million. And I can't even describe it to you. Massive General Motors Fisher Body Plant, been vacant for 40 years, is now being renovated into 400 apartments with some local developers here who are supported financially by JP Morgan. And it's happened in building after building in the city. So President Trump actually talked about Detroit. And his take on it is that your efforts to turn Detroit around actually have failed. About a year ago yesterday, he said, I'll quote him, I've been hearing about Detroit for a long time. They've been talking about that miracle in Detroit. Well, I mean, look, we gotta be honest, hasn't happened, but it's gonna happen now. Okay, so that was a year ago. And he's saying until then, nothing had happened. So I guess the question is simply this, has the president, since he took office, caused a miracle in Detroit? Well, I would say two months before that, he did a speech about how great Detroit's turnaround was. So I've lived with the president, if you just wait a little while, you might get a different take. But certainly on the law enforcement side, the Trump administration has given us more U.S. attorneys, ATF, and DEA agents to deal with the gun violence. And we are gonna have- So you've embraced that, but there's no National Guard here. I haven't had to because what we're doing is traditional prosecution. We're gonna have the fewest homicides since 1964. We've done it with law enforcement partnership. The president's never talked about National Guard in Detroit. We're at a record low homicide rate. Even though when it comes to federal immigration laws, you're not gonna enforce those. That hasn't put a target on your back for him. Again, so again, you're not saying that correctly. The city of Detroit and Detroit police don't enforce federal law. We won't ask you your immigration status. But if we arrest somebody for breaking into a house and ICE calls us and says, that's an undocumented immigrant we want, we honor that detainer and turn it over. We've done it that way under Obama, under Trump, under Biden and today. So we again have a working relationship that's driving the crime rate down. So Jamie, when you look to the total here, again, you're talking about $2 billion that you say you've put in here. In New York City, you've actually just invested $3 billion in that one new building for your new global headquarters, right? 60 stories. You got 24,000 people total, I believe, in New York working there. Day one in that building, you're gonna be working with a different mayor. And that mayor is gonna be Zoran Mamdani, now the mayor-elect of New York. Do you imagine that you could ever be sitting here in an interview like this next to him? I consider myself patriotic, so I will help any mayor, any governor in the way I feel appropriate. I'm not gonna do what they want sometimes. And I've seen a lot of mayors and governors, political leaders, some grow into the job. They fix the job, they fix the lights, they fix the crime, they fix the hospitals, they fix the ambulance times. And I've seen a lot of who swell into the job. They never get around to it. They're so befuddled with politics and ideology. I'm hoping any mayor does what's right to help the citizens of that city. If you do it right, it benefits all the citizens. If you do it wrong, it hurts all the citizens. So, yeah, I would help someone if they wanted my help. And I wanna ask you more about that. But Mayor, The Washington Post editor- I hope he calls up this governor, I mean, this mayor, because that's the way you learn. You go talk to people and say, how did you do it? What did you do? So, and maybe he has called you, but I wanna ask you about that because The Washington Editorial Board said Mamdani could learn a lot from Mike Duggan, right? That's their exact quote. And they were saying that your example offers, again, lessons from other struggling large cities. Back to how you guys started. You rolled out the red carpet. That included tax incentives for big businesses. What are we hearing from Zoran Mamdani? We're hearing very specifically, I talked to him on election eve, tax increase for big businesses, right? The message that we're hearing so far is very different than what you did in Detroit. But you did balance the budget, what, 11 years in a row? 11 straight years, 11 credit rating updates. So what is your advice to him? And has he called you? So, in relation with Eric Adams, I haven't heard from the new mayor since he got elected yesterday. But here's what I'd say. I embraced Jamie Dimon at a time people said this was maybe politically risky. The way they came to town and embraced the community, low-income housing, and job training programs, we had a public event with 300 people where one of the loudest public protesters stood up and said to an audience, 300 people, you all need to move your money to Chase, they're the one helping Detroit. There is a way to embrace a partner that the community buys into, and that's what we did. So, Third Way is a center-left political organization, okay, and I'm just putting that context on it because I think this is important. They just put out a memo overnight about Mamdani saying his policies and message, which are radical and politically toxic outside the deep blue confines of New York City, do not translate. We therefore urge Democrats at all levels to resist the pressure to align with Mamdani's politics and agenda. Now, this made me think about you because you're a lifelong Democrat, right, but you are running for governor as an independent. You're not running as a Democrat. I left the Democratic Party a year ago because of some of the things that I've seen as far as Democrats completely losing touch with average working people, farmers, rural areas. But we'll see what happens when Mamdani gets in there. People clearly want change. I happened to be in New York yesterday and saw a lot of young people very energized. So, you were there on Election Day? I was there. There were 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. I think you ought to be judged on what he does. Did you vote yesterday or? Absentee ballot. You voted absentee. I think it's very important. Saying things right, having the right vision, that's great, but at one point, the army's got to execute. And competent execution of rational policy works. And so, we could all have the same vision, lift up society, make the schools better, but then you've got to execute. And like I 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 their heart is. They will fail to accomplish their goals. So, today the Supreme Court is hearing one of the most consequential cases that there may be in this administration. It's about tariffs and whether President Trump has the authority to go ahead with them. Obviously, it has been the Republicans in the Senate that have said that his tariffs in Canada and Brazil, specifically, cannot fly, right? Republicans have stood up to him on that. He believes this case matters greatly. He said it's literally, that's his word, literally life or death for our country. Now, there are companies here in Detroit that are suing the Trump administration over tariffs and other cases. So, in a sense, this is ground zero. You can look over the river, you can look at Canada, right? It's back and forth, it's auto parts, it's all here. Were the tariffs a mistake? So, I live in Detroit. You don't have to explain anything to Detroiters about bad trade agreements America has made over the years. It's emptied out the manufacturing industry in Michigan. And I think the right tariffs on Mexico and China could have helped, but you're right. Right across the river from us is a whole bunch of Canadian auto supplier plants sending parts to the three manufacturing plants we have right here in the city of Detroit. So, when you put a tax on Canada, you put a tax on Michigan cars. And I do think the Canadian tariffs need to be addressed because it is starting to hurt the Michigan economy. Is it life or death? I don't think so. I mean, first, if you look at the economy and the world and politics and this great country of ours, it's a factor. And it may not even be the deciding factor, whether we grow or not, something like that. But I think they're starting to do a better job, particularly to look at what's working, what's not working, making adjustments, having the conversation with Canada and Mexico, having the conversation with China, making adjustments they see fit. So, I'm hopeful that we're making a lot of progress to get this in a place that's better for everybody. All right, thank you both very much. I really appreciate your time on this post-election day. Thank you. And Boris and Brianna, back to you. Appreciate that conversation. Erin, you can catch more of her interview with JPMorgan Chase CEO, Jamie Dimon, tonight at 7 p.m. Eastern on Erin Burnett Outfront. So, don't miss that.