Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump attacked both his Republican challengers and leading Democrat Hillary Clinton for being in the pocket of special interest groups. In a wide ranging speech at a campaign stop in Birch Run, Michigan on 11 August, Trump also promised to put billionaire investor Carl Icahn in charge of trade negotiations with China and Japan.

I said Carl (Icahn), you know hes made a fortune, hes a great negotiator, talented guy, very smart guy. Went to Princeton, one of the top students at Princeton. A lot of people dont know that about Carl. And there are other people like Carl, that are brilliant people and great negotiators. They dont sleep at night. Like me, we toss and turn and toss and turn, were thinking, always thinking. Ah, yay yay. Its not easy on the family. But were tossing and turning and scheming. Thats what they are. Theres no eighteen hours of sleep. Does that make sense? So I said hey Carl. In fact now the press will call Carl Im sure. But Carl Icahn, great. I said Carl if I get this thing I want to put you in charge of China and Japan, can you handle both of them? China and Japan. He said Yeah Ill do it, Ill do it, I want to do it. You know just relax, everything will work out just fine. Well make great deals, said Trump.

If former Florida Governor Jeb Bush was forced to choose between following through on moving a car factory back to the United States or giving in to special interests, he would ultimately cave in, said Trump.

I said what would Jeb do, and Hillary. And by the way all the politicians, lets just use one of them as an example, okay? All of them, because theyre all controlled, one hundred percent. So, hell say, I dont really want to let the plant be there, I want it built in the United States. We say oh we have a great president. But then what happens? He gets a call from one of his fundraisers. And they say Jeb, you cant do that. You had Ford make contributions to you. You had other people make contributions to you. And they want it to happen. You have made special interests, you had special interests. Your biggest lobbyists represents Ford. He gave you a million dollars. You cant possibly do that after he raised all that money for you. And you know what hes going to say? Oh. Ah. Then go back to sleep, okay? he said.

Despite Trumps outsider appeal, he fared no better against Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton than other Republican candidates. In a head-to-head match-up, Clinton would beat Trump by 43 percent to 29 percent, a Reuters-Ipsos poll found. Clinton would beat other Republican candidates such as Bush, Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Texas Senator Ted Cruz by similar margins.