Trump's pal Carl Icahn dropped almost a million shares of a steel-dependent company days before tariff talk began

A week before President Trump announced his intention to impose a 25 percent tariff on steel imports, his longtime confidant and one-time adviser Carl Icahn had already cut almost 1 million shares of Wisconsin-based crane manufacturer Manitowoc Company Inc., ThinkProgress reports. The timing of Icahn's $31.3 million dump is suspect, because Manitowoc is a heavily steel-dependent company.

"Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross publicly released a report on Feb. 16 calling for a 24 percent tariff," notes ThinkProgress. "But, as the chart in the [Securities and Exchange Commission] filing indicates, Icahn started selling his Manitowoc stock on Feb. 12, prior to the public release of that report." Icahn made the SEC filing on Feb. 22.

At the time Icahn began selling off the Manitowoc stock, it was worth $32 to $34 per share. "Although the stock's up 22.4 percent in the last year, shares are down 19.5 percent over the last month," wrote Seeking Alpha in an article pondering "Why Carl Icahn Just Cut His Manitowoc Stake by 33 Percent," published Feb. 28. For comparison, after Trump's tariff announcement, Manitowoc stock was trading Friday afternoon around $26 or $27 per share. Read more about Icahn's sale at ThinkProgress.

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