TRUMP: Carl Icahn for Treasury secretary

Donald Trump
Donald Trump

Since announcing his bid for president, Donald Trump has already started painting a picture of what a Trump administration would look like. Here’s something to add to the image — Treasury Secretary Carl Icahn.

In an interview with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Thursday, Trump said that he thought the billionaire activist investor (or as Icahn was called in the 1980s, “corporate raider”) would make an excellent head of the US Treasury Department.

“I’d like guys like Jack Welch,” the real estate mogul and TV personality said in the interview. “I like guys like Henry Kravis. I’d love to bring my friend Carl Icahn.”

Welch, 79, is the former CEO of General Electric Co., and Henry Kravis, 71, is the cochairman of private equity firm KKR.

Trump mentioned these names while he was discussing how the US is being beaten by Japan and Mexico in terms of trade. He said the country needs smarter people doing these deals.

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Getting Icahn — affectionately known on Wall Street as ‘Uncle Carl’ — to head down to Washington seems like a hard sell. He lives for the market and seems to be genuinely enjoying his latest headline-making strategy — pressuring Apple CEO Tim Cook to buy back stock.

You can’t help but wonder, though, what would Icahn have done in 2008.

Trump starts naming names about 4:00 into the video: