Loading ...The Wall Street veteran said the property mogul’s strong sense of self was a positive for high office because he wouldn’t be threatened by having smart people, such as Icahn, giving him advice.
“His ego permits him to — where a lot of these other presidents don’t — surround himself with really good people, not just me but others,” Icahn said in an interview with Reuters.
“He needs as many good people as he can get in this environment today. We certainly don’t see that in many of these presidents.”
Trump has said in interviews and speeches that if elected, he would love to name Icahn as Treasury Secretary.
The father of 2 said he’s flattered to be considered for the position but he does not get up early enough in the morning to accept the opportunity. Asked if he’d take on a top economic advisory role, Icahn said: “We never talked about that.”
Icahn made his fortune in the 1980s buying stakes in poorly-performing companies and battling management to turn them around. Currently he is making billion dollar bets on a rebound in energy and commodities.
Like Trump, who also grew up in the New York neighbourhood of Queens, Icahn revels in anti-corporate rhetoric.
In a video entitled “Danger Ahead” released on Tuesday, the 79-year old criticizes Wall Street and the Federal Reserve for what he says is a bubble in the corporate bond market and the super-rich for not paying enough taxes.
“Most of these rich guys — many of them — haven’t done very much,” Icahn said. “People on Wall Street, I know them, they are good friends of mine.”
“But not having to pay full taxes on money that you are earning is an absurdity,” he said, pointing to private equity and hedge fund managers who benefit from the so-called “carried interest” loophole under which their earnings are taxed as capital gains rather than ordinary wage income.
In one section of the video, which includes a clip from the mafia movie “Goodfellas,” Icahn attacks Wall Street for pushing riskier junk bonds on Americans.
“Wall Street does what Wall Street does best, it sells securities,” Icahn said. “I used to laugh with some of these guys who sell these bonds. I used to say, ‘You know, the Mafia has a better code of ethics than you guys.’ You know you keep selling this crap, and you keep selling it.”