Steven Mnuchin is a window into the most corrupt White House in history
If everyone else has their hands in the till, why not him?
![Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/B28xwZ4stgzqJ3BoHAYL46-415-80.jpg)
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is in trouble yet again for trying to get a free ride. It recently came out that back in June, he had requested a government plane to take his wife on their honeymoon in Europe, with the lame justification that he needed secure communications. This was counter to standard government practice — as a former White House ethics counsel explains, you don't need a private plane to have a secure phone or internet connection — and Mnuchin didn't get the request approved.
Still, it's both a blackly amusing story, and a window into an administration that is absolutely suffused with penny-ante corruption. If there's anything that characterizes basic government operation under President Trump, it is constant grifting.
This is something of a pattern for the secretary. Before this latest revelation, Mnuchin got in trouble for the exact same reason, when he took his wife Louise Linton on a government plane to Fort Knox, Kentucky, during the solar eclipse. Linton posted a shockingly gauche picture of the trip on Instagram, showing her and Mnuchin descending from a government plane, carefully noting the names of all the hyper-expensive designer clothing she was wearing with hashtags (#valentino).
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
![https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516-320-80.jpg)
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Then when someone commented about the taxpayer expense, Linton came unglued in typical elitist fashion, as Jia Tolentino notes:
In a few aggrieved sentences, Linton managed to frame her husband’s $300 million net worth as a burden, her six months in Washington as harrowing public servitude, and an ordinary American as a contemptible member of the economic underclass. She punctuated this bit with two emoji, a flexed bicep, and a kissy face, which were meant to convey nonchalance but instead communicated a type of strained, hierarchical female fury that I have not witnessed in person since cheerleading camp, in 2005. [The New Yorker]
Then on Thursday last week, Mnuchin dug himself in even deeper. At a Politico conference, he managed to strain credulity to the breaking point while also scoffing that only stupid country rubes (e.g. Trump voters) could care about an eclipse anyway. "Being a New Yorker and [also from] California, I was like, the eclipse? Really?" he said. "I don't have any interest in watching the eclipse." Yeah, sure Steve. It was merest coincidence that you took your wife to within a few dozen miles of the eclipse totality zone during the 45 minutes that it passed by.
All these episodes make for a combination of deeply irritating rich New Yorker elitism and Mobutu-esque abuse of the public fisc. Somewhat by coincidence, Linton is also notorious for publishing a "memoir" about a gap year in Zambia, where she supposedly had dangerous encounters with rebels fighting the Second Congo War. Locals — as well as anyone who had been to Zambia at the time — immediately pointed out that many of the lurid details were obviously invented (and full of disgusting racist stereotypes to boot). They pulled the book, and it cannot now be purchased on Amazon.
However, all this is just the tip of the iceberg for the Trump administration. Since Trump took office, there have been a constant trickle of stories of him abusing his position as president to enrich himself, his family, and his businesses — from his daughter getting patents from China on the same day he met with the Chinese president, to charging the Secret Service to use his golf carts or an obscene rent in Trump Tower, to a revelation on Friday that the government had paid $1,092 for officials in the National Security Council to stay at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort.
Corruption is even being given official sanction. Last week it came out that the Office of Government Ethics (whose chief resigned in protest in July, saying the U.S. has become "close to a laughingstock" on ethics) will allow legal defense funds for aides caught up in the Russia investigation to accept anonymous donations from lobbyists.
Trump could probably just write himself a billion-dollar check from the Treasury (or perhaps print a billion-dollar platinum coin, with his face on it of course), but that appears to be beyond his imagination. Instead, it's going to be an endless parade of this kind of relatively small-bore looting. That is almost certainly why Mnuchin feels comfortable asking for a $25,000-per-hour perk. If everyone else has their hands in the till, why not him?
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.
-
Paloma recipe: the cocktail of the summer
The Week Recommends This refreshing drink balances the fresh and fizzy taste of grapefruit soda with a subtle flavour of smooth tequila
By Rebekah Evans, The Week UK Published
-
Mushroom edibles are tripping up users
the explainer The psychedelics can sometimes have questionable components
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
Prisons are simply not prepared for extreme heat
Under the radar Inmates are at severe risk of heat-related illness
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
How could J.D. Vance impact the special relationship?
Today's Big Question Trump's hawkish pick for VP said UK is the first 'truly Islamist country' with a nuclear weapon
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Biden, Trump urge calm after assassination attempt
Speed Reads A 20-year-old gunman grazed Trump's ear and fatally shot a rally attendee on Saturday
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Supreme Court rejects challenge to CFPB
Speed Read The court rejected a conservative-backed challenge to the way the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is funded
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Arizona court reinstates 1864 abortion ban
Speed Read The law makes all abortions illegal in the state except to save the mother's life
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Trump, billions richer, is selling Bibles
Speed Read The former president is hawking a $60 "God Bless the USA Bible"
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
The debate about Biden's age and mental fitness
In Depth Some critics argue Biden is too old to run again. Does the argument have merit?
By Grayson Quay Published
-
How would a second Trump presidency affect Britain?
Today's Big Question Re-election of Republican frontrunner could threaten UK security, warns former head of secret service
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
'Rwanda plan is less a deterrent and more a bluff'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By The Week UK Published