Former Trump adviser Icahn dumped steel stock ahead of new tariffs: report

President Trump’s former adviser Carl Icahn sold off millions of dollars worth of stocks tied to the steel industry one week before the president announced new tariffs on steel and aluminum, according to reporting from The Washington Post.

On Thursday, Trump announced he will impose new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports in the coming week.

Our Steel and Aluminum industries (and many others) have been decimated by decades of unfair trade and bad policy with countries from around the world. We must not let our country, companies and workers be taken advantage of any longer. We want free, fair and SMART TRADE!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 1, 2018

{mosads}Icahn sold $31.3 million worth of stock in the Manitowoc Company, a manufacturer of construction cranes, according to a Feb. 22 SEC filing.

Manitowoc’s stock fell to $26 after Trump’s announcement. Icahn sold his shares for about $32 to $34 each, even though he had not actively been trading the company’s stock since January 2015.

Icahn, whose relationship with Trump goes back to the 1980s, endorsed Trump during the 2016 election. He resigned from his position as special adviser on regulatory issues in August amid concerns over his possible conflicts of interest.

Trump announced the 25 percent steel tariffs and 10 percent aluminum tariffs at the recommendation of the Commerce Department, which said that increasing import volumes could be a national security risk.

For that reason, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has said Trump’s announcement should not have come as a “shock” to Wall Street investors, which would include Icahn. Trump has advocated tariffs in the past.

Trump’s announcement was met with strong pushback from Republicans and Wall Street.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped over 400 points right after Trump’s announcement, though it did make up some of the losses later in the day.

The European Union and China have said they are considering retaliatory measures.