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Well, isn't this just unbelievably coincidental?
Billionaire investor and longtime Trump confidant Carl Icahn dumped $31.3 million of stock in a company heavily dependent on steel last week, just days before Trump announced plans to impose steep tariffs on steel imports.
In a little-noticed SEC filing submitted on February 22, 2018, Icahn disclosed that he systematically sold off nearly 1 million shares of Manitowoc Company Inc. Manitowoc "is a leading global manufacturer of cranes and lifting solutions" and, therefore, heavily dependent on steel to make its products.
The filing came just seven days before a White House event where Trump announced his intention of imposing a 25 percent tariff on steel imports.
Immediately following that announcement, ThinkProgress notes, Manitowoc's stock lost 6 percent of its value, and as of Friday morning had lost another 6 percent. It's dropped from the $32 to $34 per share at which Icahn sold to about $26 now. It doesn't look huge, but it adds up when you're talking a million shares.
Until August, Icahn was a "special adviser" to Trump. He resigned, as TP points out, just before a New Yorker article broke, an article which detailed how he "used his position in the White House and his connection to Trump to protect his investments."
Now he's just Trump's special friend, not an official adviser. But it sure looks from the outside that he's still using that connection.