Elaine Chao weirdly connects Trump's White House, China's government, shipping, and Mitch McConnell

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) may be luxuriating in his reputation as a villainous legislation killer, but his wife, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, has kept a fairly low profile for a member of President Trump's Cabinet — in the U.S., at least. Chao has been a celebrity in China since she became the first Chinese-American Cabinet secretary under George W. Bush, and she "has repeatedly used her connections and celebrity status in China to boost the profile" of her family's shipping business, The New York Times reports.

Chao's father, James Chao, founded the shipping company, Foremost Group, in 1964. While its headquarters are in Manhattan, Foremost now "builds most of its ships in state-owned shipyards in China, with some financed by Chinese government loans," primarily shipping iron ore and other raw materials to China, using ships registered in Liberia and Hong Kong through companies in the Marshall Islands, the Times reports.

Chao hasn't had a formal role at Foremost since the 1970s, but she and McConnell have benefitted in other ways — James Chao gave them a gift worth between $5 million and $25 million in 2008, and Chao's family has donated $1.1 million to McConnell's campaigns and political action committees since 1989 — and Chao's advocacy for Foremost has at times blurred the lines between family business and official duty, the Times found.

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Chao said in a statement that her family members "are patriotic Americans who have led purpose-driven lives and contributed much to this country," and a Transportation Department spokesman said the Times wove "together a web of innuendos and baseless inferences." Her sister, Foremost CEO Angela Chao, told the Times that Foremost was "around and we were well respected well before Elaine was in anything. We predate her; she doesn't predate us." Read more about Chao's proposed cuts for the struggling U.S. maritime industry she oversees, her family's powerful friends in China, and Chao's role as a "bridge" between China and the U.S. at The New York Times.