Is Carl Icahn Better At Predicting Politics Than Markets?

On Tuesday, billionaire investor Carl Icahn discussed his political views at length with CNBC. Icahn believes the only hope for the U.S. economy is for Donald Trump to be elected president in November.

“I think it’s extremely important for this country to see Trump win,” Icahn said.

“I think he’s right on about the economy… He is exactly right on. And our country cannot exist when the government is at war with business. And that’s exactly what we have.”

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Icahn added that he believes working middle class American voters will support Trump in November.

“Those guys are going to vote for him because they’re smart guys. They know they’re getting screwed,” he explained.

It remains to be seen if Icahn will do better with his political predictions than his recent market predictions.

Back in April, Icahn told CNBC that a “day of reckoning” was ahead for the U.S. stock market. Subsequent SEC filings revealed Icahn Enterprises LP IEP was holding a net 149 percent short position in stocks.

Since that interview, the S&P 500 has climbed 4.8 percent to new all-time highs. Unless Icahn took advantage of the brief two-day market dip following the Brexit vote in June, the trade hasn’t worked out in his favor so far.

In the past decade, Icahn Enterprises’ stock has delivered a 27.4 percent return, less than half the 71.9 percent return of the S&P 500 during that time.

We'll see how his political predictions play out soon enough.