Trump names China critics for top posts
■ Navarro to head White House National Trade Council
President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday named billionaire Carl Icahn, a vocal critic of what he calls government overregulation, to serve as a special advisor to overhaul “strangling regulations.”
He also tapped Peter Navarro, an outspoken China critic, to head the White House National Trade Council, a new office that will oversee trade and industrial policy, in the latest sign he is moving ahead with plans to overhaul US economic policy.
The 80-year-old Icahn, known as an aggressive, activist investor, will not serve as a government employee, will receive no salary and will not be bound by ethics rules requiring him to divest his investments.
He said President Obama had crippled America’s business owners with what he says is more than $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,” he said.
Icahn is already reported to have helped Trump pick candidates to fill his cabinet, including a climate-change denier to head the Environmental Protection Agency.
“Carl was with me from the beginning and with his being one of the world’s great businessmen, that was something I truly appreciated,” Trump said in a statement.
“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,” the real estate billionaire added.
“His help on the strangling regulations that our country is faced with will be invaluable,” he added. Trump’s appointment of Narvarro signals he is also moving to reshape relations with China after amidst the tensions between them.