Carl Icahn Claims America Is Burning And Trump Can Turn Things Around
Carl Icahn supports Donald Trump as president and would accept Trump’s offer of the Treasury Secretary position. In a video he released Tuesday, September 29, 2015, 79-year-old Icahn indicated that the country is burning, and he supports Trump who understand the problems and wants to turn America around.
According to CNN, billionaire Wall Street investor Carl Icahn said that while he doesn’t agree with Trump on all the issues, the country needs someone to “wake it up.” In the following statement, Icahn admitted that Trump can be brash, but of all the presidential candidates, speaks his mind.
“We need a president that can move Congress, and I think Donald Trump could do it… he’s willing to say what he believes and willing to say, ‘Hey, this is complete b******t.'”
In his 15-minute video “Danger Ahead”, Carl Icahn called on the Federal Reserve to raise interest taxes and eliminate taxes on corporate profits made overseas because the United States is headed for another financial collapse.
According to Business Insider, during an MSNBC interview on June 18, 2015, Donald Trump said that if he were elected president, he would love to bring his friend Carl Icahn as Treasury Secretary.
On August 7, 2015 at 3:09 p.m., Carl Icahn tweeted the following.
“After last night’s debate I decided to accept @realDonaldTrump offer for Secretary of Treasury.”
According to Reuters, Carl Icahn’s video came out a day after Trump unveiled sweeping proposals to simplify the tax code, slash the corporate tax rate and impose a one-time levy on the overseas earnings of U.S. companies. The plan on taxing overseas profits as unveiled by the Republican presidential front-runner struck analysts as similar to the proposals of President Barack Obama, Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York, and Republican Rob Portman of Ohio.
However, Icahn argued that Trump was the only candidate for the 2016 presidential race who really understands the problems.
In his video, Icahn berated Wall Street and the Federal Reserve for creating a bubble in the corporate bond market and the super-rich for not paying enough taxes. He said that many of the rich guys, people on Wall Street who are good friends of his, have not done very much. He added that not having to pay full taxes “on money that you are earning is an absurdity,” 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.
Establishing himself on Wall Street in 1961 as a stockbroker, Carl Icahn moved on to form a securities chain in 1968 that dealt with risk arbitrage and options trading. From 1978, he focused on taking controlling positions in diverse companies such as Nabisco, T.W.A., Texaco, Uniroyal, Marvel Comics, Time Warner, Netflix, Motorola, Herbalife and many others.
To clear up speculations on his vocal support of Donald Trump’s presidential aspirations, Carl Icahn made the following statement on Tuesday.
“I would say it’s an endorsement. I think at this moment in time, he’s the only candidate that speaks out about the country’s problems. I’m behind Trump.”
Carl Icahn could not have made himself more clear.
[Photo by Mat Szwajkos/Getty Images]
