President-elect Donald Trump named the newest addition to his team on Wednesday, announcing billionaire investor Carl Icahn as a special advisor on issues relating to regulatory reform.
According to Trump’s press announcement, “Icahn will be advising the president in his individual capacity and will not be serving as a federal employee or a special government employee and will not have any specific duties.”
Although the release is vague on any specific regulations, an article on CNBC by Jacob Pramuk cited a previous interview between Icahn and CNBC after Trump’s win in November when Icahn said “he is ‘not against regulation,’ as he would not want to repeal Dodd-Frank.”
But he said that “you can’t let the regulators start running the country.”
The statement is in stark contrast to the plans Trump has already announced on dismantling Dodd-Frank.
Trump’s website calls Dodd-Frank a “sprawling and complex piece of legislation that has unleashed hundreds of new rules and several new bureaucratic agencies,” including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
“The proponents of Dodd-Frank promised that it would lift our economy. Yet now, six years later, the American people remain stuck in the slowest, weakest, most tepid recovery since the Great Depression,” the website states.
Icahn’s viewpoint even differs from Mnuchin, who has already made critical statements about Dodd-Frank and reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac since being nominated.
In fact, Icahn is more closely associated with regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency.
Icahn’s name joins a list of other Wall Street insiders who have already been selected for Trump’s team, including Treasury Secretary nominee Steve Mnuchin, a former executive at Goldman Sachs and former chairman of OneWest Bank, and Quicken Loans executive vice president Shawn Krause, who was named to the HUD transition team.
“Carl was with me from the beginning and with his being one of the world’s great businessmen, that was something I truly appreciated,” said Trump. “He 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. His help on the strangling regulations that our country is faced with will be invaluable.”
After receiving a degree in philosophy from Princeton University in 1957, Icahn attended medical school at New York University and then joined the Army. Icahn began his career on Wall Street in 1961 and in 1968 he formed Icahn & Co.
“I am proud to serve President-elect Trump as a special advisor on regulatory reform,” said Mr. Icahn. “Under President Obama, America’s business owners have been crippled by over $1 trillion in new regulations and over 750 billion hours dealing with paperwork. It’s time to break free of excessive regulation and let our entrepreneurs do what they do best: create jobs and support communities. President-elect Trump is serious about helping American families, and regulatory reform will be a critical component of making America work again.”
