Investment guru Carl Icahn says President-elect Donald Trump's accomplishments before he has even officially entered the Oval Office point to a "much, much better economy."
So promising, in fact, that the billionaire activist investor admits he should have placed an even bigger bet on stocks in wake of Trump’s defeat of Hillary Clinton.
"All the things Donald's doing really point to a much, much better economy," Icahn told CNBC. However, he did confess he thought the market "is ahead of itself somewhat," he said.
"Sometimes you get these situations where it's almost a no-brainer where the odds are in your favor tremendously. There's absolutely no reason that everybody was saying 'if Trump wins everything is going to fall apart' — which is nonsense," he said.
Icahn, who supported and advised Donald Trump during the campaign, explained that the president-elect had consistently said he would slash corporate taxes and roll back regulations, CNBC.com explained.
But after Trump's electoral college win, Dow futures initially tumbled more than 800 points. The brief post-election plunge in the Dow was "completely, totally insane," Icahn said, adding that it made sense to "play the market."
The closely followed investor left the president-elect's victory party early to take advantage of the dip and bet about $1 billion on equities. Since then, the major indexes have continued to setrecord highs seemingly on a daily basis.
"I did buy a fair amount, I guess in perspective, but not nearly what I should have," Icahn said.
In a wide-ranging interview:
- Icahn said that Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt will "do the job" as Environmental Protection Agency chief.
- Icahn said Trump should eliminate "crazy regulations," and lower the depreciation schedule so investment in the U.S. "make sense." In fact, as of September 30, 47 percent of Icahn's portfolio is weighted in the energy sector. Some of his major holdings include CVR Energy and Cheniere Energy, CNBC.com explained.
- Icahn also said he spoke with Trump's Treasury secretary pick, Steve Mnuchin, and strongly backed him, as well as Wilbur Ross, Trump's pick for Commerce secretary. He wouldn't comment on whether he was interviewing candidates for secretary of state.
- Icahn said "the days of the automobile distributors ... are going to come to an end of getting 27 times earnings for an AutoZone or an O'Reilly because you have a couple things happening ... a lot of things they sell are imported and two, you have Amazon coming," Icahn said.
Icahn isn't the only financial guru to express optimism about the incoming Trump administration.
Veteran financial guru Larry Kudlow, who served as the Donald Trump campaign's senior economic adviser, urges that the same bi-partianship displayed by John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan displayed is exactly the role model President-elect Donald Trump must embrace to truly make America great again.
In the early years of his tenure, Kennedy’s advisers had urged him to increase government spending, specifically on infrastructure spending. “Maybe you’ve heard that before. They tried that and it didn’t work,” Kudlow said at a recent Palm Beach book store, the Palm Beach Daily News reported.
Kennedy reached across party lines and asked for advice from the Republicans in his cabinet, who urged him to cut taxes.
“Lower taxes drives economic growth through incentives,” said Kudlow, a Newsmax Finance Insider, radio talk-show host and CNBC senior contributor,
The tax cut worked, even though it was implemented after Kennedy was killed in 1963, the Daily News reported.
Kudlow also has criticized the lack of civility in this presidential campaign.
“I want it bipartisan, that’s the way you get things done,” he said. “If I disagree with you, why can’t we have a civil, respected conversation? I don’t call you names. I don’t insult you. Kennedy had civility. Reagan had civility. … We need that. We need that in probably all parts of our life.”
(Newsmax wire services contributed to this report).