Trump taps another billionaire for help: corporate raider Carl Icahn
President-elect Donald Trump is naming one of the nation’s richest men to be a special adviser on issues regarding regulatory reform.
Carl Icahn, a veteran of Wall Street who founded his own securities firm called Icahn Enterprises, was named by Mr. Trump on Wednesday.
Icahn, an early Trump supporter, is estimated to worth more than $16 billion. The president-elect in a statement said the 80-year-old Icahn, one of the nation’s leading investors, is “not only a brilliant negotiator, but also someone who is innately able to predict the future, especially having to do with finances and economies.”
During his campaign, Mr. Trump repeatedly vowed to cut back on the number of government regulations on American business owners. Icahn said in a statement American businesses “have been crippled” by regulations.
Carl Icahn and Donald Trump have had business dealings in the past. Icahn Enterprises bought Trump Entertainment Resorts in February 2016 after the casino operating company exited bankruptcy for the fourth time, USA Today noted.
Elsewhere in the Trump transition effort Wednesday, the head of Boeing vowed that the manufacturer would complete the Air Force One project for less than the $4 billion the president-elect had claimed it would cost.
Dennis Muilenburg on Wednesday told reporters outside Mr. Trump’s coastal Florida estate that his meeting with the president-elect was “very productive.”
Mr. Trump earlier this month had ripped Boeing over the cost of the program to replace the aging presidential aircraft.
But Muilenburg said that Boeing “would get it done for far less” than the $4 billion claimed, though he did not suggest what the aircraft manufacturer had estimated for a cost.
Muilenburg also did not provide a timetable for the completion of the presidential planes.