Trump Adviser Icahn Loses Interest in Regulation, Severs Ties to Administration After Self-Enrichment Scheme Fails
Aug. 18, 2017
Trump Adviser Icahn Loses Interest in Regulation, Severs Ties to Administration After Self-Enrichment Scheme Fails
Statement of Robert Weissman, President, Public Citizen
Note: Carl Icahn, who served as a special adviser to President Donald Trump on regulations, released a letter today in which he parted ways with the administration.
Following his apparent failure to win a regulatory change on ethanol rules that would benefit his personal empire, Carl Icahn is taking his ball and going home. Until a combination of public scrutiny and the lobbying of ethanol interests defeated his effort, Icahn appeared poised to leverage his special status with Trump into a regulatory tweak that would save his refining company $200 million annually. It looked like one of the most extraordinary instances in American history of converting political insider connections into personal profit. Unfortunately for Icahn, the scheme collapsed. Now that his opportunity for personal profit seems to have vanished, so too has his interest in regulatory policy.
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