Carl Icahn Sets Record Straight on Role with Trump
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn weighs in on how business and investing are squeezed by ‘insane’ regulations.
Will he or won’t he? Billionaire investor Carl Icahn provided some clarity on whether he is interested in taking a position in the Trump administration as an economic advisor.
“I would definitely never take a formal role. It’s not my nature anyway. I’m 80 year’s old. I never reported to anyone in my life. That’s not my nature. I could never get involved in Washington, into the bureaucracy of that,” he said during an interview with the FOX Business Network’s Neil Cavuto.
Icahn has repeatedly made it clear he is not interested in a role at Treasury after Trump said he’d be great in the role. However, FOX Business exclusively reported on Monday that the billionaire might be mulling over another potential role. Icahn explained how that might work.
“I think my giving advice can help somewhat, I hope, and I tend to do it if Donald wants to listen” he said.
Regulations are among the issues Icahn has already addressed with the President-elect.
“You need regulations… I don’t in any way say that companies shouldn’t be regulated to some extent, in fact, I think you need Dodd-Frank to some extent more than even Donald does,” he said. “With business today, the problem is that you’re completely strangled by too many regulations done by people that have no understanding what-so-ever of business, and the ramifications of it… as a result of those regulations, you don’t have business spending.” Icahn added that businesses to some extent may feel as if they are “at war with the government.”
Icahn, an early supporter of Trump, attributes his success to the Middle Class.
“If you think about a middle class guy working out in the Middle West, the real question is not why did he vote for him, but why wouldn’t you vote for him? Why would you keep going with this establishment?... I think it is a manifestation of what’s going on and why this economy is not working,” he said.