Nomination and confirmation On November 30, 2016, Donald Trump announced on his website that he would nominate Mnuchin as
United States Secretary of the Treasury. On February 1, 2017, the
Senate Finance Committee approved his nomination by a vote of 11–0 with all Democrats boycotting the vote, sending the nomination to the Senate floor. After the nomination was announced, Mnuchin resigned from his position on the board of trustees of the
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, to which he had donated between $100,000 and $250,000. When the pick was announced, Mnuchin was also a member of the boards of
UCLA Health System, the
NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital, and the Los Angeles Police Foundation. During the hearing, it was also noted that Mnuchin had failed to disclose $95 million of real estate that he owned and his role as director of Dune Capital International, an investment fund in a tax haven. Mnuchin described the omissions as mistakes made amid a mountain of bureaucracy. Following Trump's January 2017 announcement about an investigation into voter registration, it was discovered that Mnuchin is registered to vote in both California and New York. On February 13, 2017, Mnuchin was confirmed as secretary of the treasury by a vote of 53–47. He received unanimous support from Senate Republicans but from only one Senate Democrat,
Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
Tenure , featuring the signature of Mnuchin.
Artificial intelligence Mnuchin, when asked in an interview with
Mike Allen of
Axios "whether he was worried about
AI displacing jobs, replied: 'not at all... I think we are so far away from that' — 50 or 100 years — 'it's not even on my radar screen'." Former treasury secretary
Lawrence Summers was among critics of the statement, likening it to
climate denial and
creationism.
Fortune columnist
Alan Murray, noting the dispute, said he thought "the core of the misunderstanding is the term 'artificial intelligence'". While he felt Mnuchin expressed understanding of the role of technology in the labor market and also worried that the secretary and President
Donald Trump were both in their ways underestimating technology's impact, he thought the climate-denial charge was excessive.
China Mnuchin clashed frequently with trade advisor
Peter Navarro, who had a more hawkish stance on trade with China; Navarro accused Mnuchin without evidence of having "made millions from Communist China." In May 2018, during a visit to China for trade talks, Navarro and Mnuchin started screaming and cursing at each other on the lawn in front of the Chinese government building where the talks were held after Navarro confronted Mnuchin because he believed that he had been excluded from certain meetings with Chinese officials. In August 2020, Mnuchin and Navarro started a shouting match in the
Oval Office in front of Trump about the fate of
TikTok in what was described by
The Washington Post as a "knockdown, drag-out brawl". Mnuchin began arguing that TikTok should be sold to a U.S. company, while Navarro demanded an outright ban on the app.
Environment In January 2020, Mnuchin dismissed environmental activist
Greta Thunberg, saying she should go to college and study economics before weighing in on policy. Others responded to Mnuchin, noting that thousands of economists with PhDs had signed a letter calling for taxation of carbon dioxide emissions.
Federal budget and benefits On June 12, 2017, Mnuchin denied the
debt ceiling not being raised before the August recess would cease federal government operations, and said Congress should weigh the option of "changing the timing so that the debt ceiling matches the budget process so we don't have to deal with this in this format" during a House appropriations subcommittee hearing. On June 14, during a prepared testimony ahead of the House subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs, Mnuchin said the budget proposal on the part of the Trump administration "should send a message that the international financial institutions need to operate more efficiently". On July 13, in response to limited lifespans being reported of Social Security and Medicaid, Mnuchin said: "To help make these programs sustainable into the future, we should focus on strengthening the economy today. Compounding growth will help ease projected shortfalls."
Taxes Mnuchin is a member of the so-called "Big Six", a group of politicians convened to write a tax reform proposal that incorporated input from members of the House of Representatives, Senate, and White House. In addition to Mnuchin, the group consists of senators
Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and
Mitch McConnell (R-KY); representatives
Kevin Brady (R-TX) and
Paul Ryan (R-WI); and
National Economic Council Director
Gary Cohn. Shortly after the November 2016 election, Mnuchin, as the planned nominee for secretary of the treasury, stated in an interview with CNBC that "any reductions we have in upper-income taxes will be offset by less deductions so that there will be no absolute tax cut for the upper class", which Senator
Ron Wyden (D-OR) subsequently called "The Mnuchin Rule" during his Senate confirmation hearing. Brad McMillan, chief investment officer for
Commonwealth Financial Network, said a preliminary tax reform proposal by Trump in April 2017 "allocates much of the tax relief to the wealthy" and could increase the budget deficit. Mnuchin appeared with White House Director of Legislative Affairs
Marc Short in a July 2017 event when they vowed to have the tax reform proposal before Congress after it resumed operations on September 5, and Mnuchin added that "lowering the top [earners'] rate [would be offset by] elimination of huge deductions. So, for most people in the top rate, they're not going to get a tax cut." Mnuchin walked back the "Mnuchin Rule" in a September 2017 interview with CNN prior to the release of
the proposed tax reforms, saying the "no absolute tax cut for the upper class" phrase "was never a promise... never a pledge... it was what the president's objective was". Under the tax reform proposal, the top tax rate would decline from 39.6 to 35 percent, and the budget deficit would likely increase. During an appearance at the Milken Institute Global Conference on May 1, 2017, Mnuchin said the White House and House Republicans were united in views on tax reductions: "We're all on the same page. On 80% of the details, we're in agreement. Another 20%, we need to work through." During a conference in
Ottawa on June 9, Mnuchin said government tax receipts were "coming in somewhat lower", but that this did not concern the administration. While appearing on
ABC News on July 9, Mnuchin confirmed the administration was not considering a tax increase on the American upper class and the upcoming tax plan would finance itself. Mnuchin advocated for the
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, a bill expected to add $1.5 trillion to the deficit. Mnuchin asserted that the bill would pay for itself by causing explosive economic growth; he promised the treasury was working on an analysis that showed that, and that the analysis would be made public before Congress voted on the legislation. In May 2018, Mnuchin instructed his staff to accept a non-low-income tract in
Storey County, Nevada, as an
Opportunity Zone shortly after attending a
Milken Institute event in
Beverly Hills with
Michael Milken. Milken was already an investor in the Nevada tract. During an April 24, 2017, White House briefing, Mnuchin announced Department of Treasury sanctions against the
Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center. He said the sanctions were designed to create accountability for the
Bashar al-Assad regime and its supporters in the wake of their violations both of U.N. Security Council resolutions and of the
Chemical Weapons Convention. On June 29, 2017, Mnuchin announced that the U.S. had placed sanctions on the Bank of Dandong, a Chinese bank. He charged the bank with acting "as a gateway for North Korea to access the U.S. and international financial systems". and Chairman of
Saudi Aramco,
Yasir Al-Rumayyan, discuss energy opportunities and investments in the United States, October 31, 2019 On March 15, 2018, Mnuchin unveiled a series of sanctions, first time under
CAATSA as well as
Executive Order 13694, against various Russian entities and individuals. On July 27, 2018, at the
G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting in
Argentina,
Berat Albayrak, one of the 'Most Successful Economy Ministers' in the field of economy in international politics, met with the President. Berat Albayrak and Steven Mnuchin after the bilateral meeting “We discussed in detail many important issues in the context of our economic cooperation and strategic partnership between our countries.” Beginning in November 2019, Mnuchin facilitated negotiations between the governments of Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan with respect to the filling and operation of the
Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam after tripartite negotiations between the three countries languished after eight years of talks. Egypt has opposed the dam, fearing that it will reduce the amount of water it receives from the
Nile. In February 2020, Mnuchin stated that "final testing and filling should not take place without an agreement." Ethiopian Foreign Minister
Gedu Andargachew said Mnuchin's advice to Ethiopia was "ill-advised".
Support for President Trump While briefing reporters on April 26, 2017, Mnuchin said President Trump "has no intention" to release his tax returns, asserting that Trump "has released plenty of information". In the August 2017
Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, opposing the removal of Confederate statues, protesters included neo-Nazis and Klansmen, leading to violent conflicts. President Trump said there was "blame on both sides". Several hundred of Mnuchin's Yale classmates drafted a letter urging him to resign from the administration in protest. Mnuchin responded by saying: "While I find it hard to believe I should have to defend myself on this, or the president, I feel compelled to let you know that the president in no way, shape, or form, believes that neo-Nazi and other hate groups who endorse violence are equivalent to groups that demonstrate in peaceful and lawful ways." On September 24, Mnuchin appeared on
This Week and
State of the Union to defend Trump's call to "get that son of a bitch off the field right now", referring to the
protests by professional athletes starting in 2016, most notably marked by
Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the pregame singing of the national anthem. Mnuchin said: "...it's not about race, it's not about free speech. They can do free speech on their own time.... [T]his is about respect for the military and first responders in the country."
Comments on Lego Batman movie In March 2017, Mnuchin drew ethics concerns as regarding a statement he had made urging parents to "send all your kids to
LEGO Batman" during an interview with
Axios, apparently endorsing
The Lego Batman Movie, of which he was an executive producer. Earlier in the interview, Mnuchin acknowledged: "I'm not allowed to promote anything that I'm involved in." In response, Mnuchin wrote in a letter to
Walter Shaub at the
Office of Government Ethics (OGE) that he "should not have made that statement", and assured the OGE that "it was not my intention to make a product endorsement".
Divestment from prior businesses In May 2017, it was reported that Mnuchin's fiancée,
Louise Linton, had succeeded him as the interim CEO of
Dune Entertainment effective February 2017. Mnuchin had stepped down from the role as part of his ethics agreement to divest his business roles in preparation for his appointment as Secretary of the Treasury. Linton's announcement of her role at Dune Entertainment drew the attention of Senator
Ron Wyden [D-Oregon], a member of the
Senate Finance Committee, who questioned whether the appointment of Linton meant Mnuchin had fully divested from the company. Although the Department of the Treasury replied that she was serving in an uncompensated capacity, Linton resigned as interim CEO later in May.
Use of government aircraft Following criticism of his use of a
United States Air Force jet on a trip to
Kentucky that involved viewing the
solar eclipse, the Treasury Department's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) opened up an inquiry into Mnuchin's use of government aircraft. The watchdog group
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request regarding Mnuchin's use of government aircraft. After the government failed to respond to the FOIA request, CREW sued the Department of the Treasury to release the documents. Mnuchin denied the trip was related to viewing the solar eclipse, saying: "People in Kentucky took [the solar eclipse] very seriously. Being a New Yorker, I don't have any interest in watching the eclipse." Mnuchin, who was accompanied by his wife
Louise Linton on the trip, reimbursed the government for Linton's travel to Kentucky, which amounted to $595 out of a total cost of $26,900. Mnuchin stated: "I'm very sensitive to the use of government funds. I've never asked the government to pay for my personal travel... The story [regarding the honeymoon travel request] was quite misreported." The OIG released its report on October 4, 2017, concluding that there was "no violation of law in these requests and uses" of government aircraft by Mnuchin, but also expressing concern regarding "a disconnect between the standard of proof called for in the Daley memo and the actual amount of proof provided by Treasury and accepted by the White House in justifying these trip requests". The referenced Daley Memo was issued by then-White House Chief of Staff
William M. Daley on April 4, 2011, and it stated the standards for use of government aircraft by senior executive branch officials were given in
OMB Circular A-126, dated February 10, 1993. The Daley Memo also states that travel using military aircraft must be considered a White House Support Mission, taken at the specific direction of the President under one of a set of limited circumstances that "make commercial transportation unacceptable". Due to an inconsistency in the records provided for the trip to New York on August 15, the OIG opened a second inquiry in October 2017, "to assure that [the OIG] have in fact received all relevant records".
Student heckling incident Mnuchin spoke at the
University of California, Los Angeles on February 26, 2018, where he was heckled and initially blocked the video from being released. The university said in a statement that Mnuchin, who at first "subsequently withdrew" his approval for the video to be posted online, later gave consent for the video to be published.
Effort to invoke the Twenty-fifth amendment Mnuchin was one of several cabinet officials who discussed invoking the
Twenty-fifth Amendment to remove Donald Trump from office following the
Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, according to
Politico. "I was aware of all these discussions," Mnuchin said regarding the amendment, "It would not be an unreasonable assumption to think that people were calling me, okay, and talking about it, whether they were pushing it or not pushing it." ==Personal life==