The Irony of the Louise Linton Instagram Controversy Is Almost Too Delicious
Here's a fun, relatable story: Recently, Treasury Secretary to the United States Steven Mnuchin and his wife Louise Linton, an actress who he married in June in front of the President of the United States at the Andrew Mellon Auditorium in D.C.-she wore a custom Inez Di Santo gown-took a #daytrip on a U.S. military jet to visit with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in Kentucky, where Linton debarked sporting #rolandmouret, #hermesscarf, #tomford and #valentino.
As is customary, Linton proudly flexed her trip on Instagram account for all the world to admire, but seemed flummoxed when Jenni Miller, a 45-year-old mother of three from Portland, commented, "Glad we could pay for your little getaway. #deplorable." What a mix-up!
Linton chose to personally respond to Miller, not with the grace or diplomacy of someone in the public eye, but with enough condescension to cow the Pope: "Aw!!! Did you think this was a personal trip?! Adorable! Do you think the US govt paid for our honeymoon or personal travel?! Lololol. Have you given more to the economy than me and my husband? Either as an individual earner in taxes OR in self sacrifice to your country?"
She continued: "I'm pretty sure we paid more taxes toward our day 'trip' than you did. Pretty sure the amount we sacrifice per year is a lot more than you'd be willing to sacrifice if the choice was yours."
In summary, Linton, who is married to a Goldman Sachs banker-turned-public-servant worth as much as $500 million, took time out of her day to rant about her status and boast about the amount she pays in taxes, which she assures Miller is a lot, because she's rich, you follow? She also told Miller, "You're adorably out of touch," "your life looks cute," and told her to go watch Game of Thrones.
Linton is the same woman who wrote a highly controversial memoir about her time in Zambia, painting it as a war-torn "nightmare" and casting herself as the white savior. The backlash caused her to delete her Twitter account.
Linton, it appears, does not know what the term "privilege" means.
Miller told The New York Times that she would have replied with "a very snide Marie Antoinette joke," had Linton not already turned her Instagram account private. A Treasury Department official told The Times that the Mnuchins reimbursed the government for their #daytrip, and that Linton's designer labels were not compensated by taxpayer dime.
Perhaps the best bit is Linton's insistence that "a nice message, one filled with wisdom and humanity" would "get more traction," which she said near the end of her patronizing screed toward a woman less well-off than her whose interests her husband is allegedly supposed to protect. The irony is almost too delicious.
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