Report: Mnuchin Requested Use Of Government Jet For His Honeymoon

Treasury Secretary-designate Steve Mnuchin and his wife Louise Linton, arrives for a church service at St. John’s Episcopal Church across from the White House in Washington, Friday, Jan. 20, 2017, on Donald Trump's... Treasury Secretary-designate Steve Mnuchin and his wife Louise Linton, arrives for a church service at St. John’s Episcopal Church across from the White House in Washington, Friday, Jan. 20, 2017, on Donald Trump's inauguration day. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin requested (and was denied) use of a government jet for his honeymoon in August, ABC News reported late Wednesday.

ABC News reported, citing unnamed officials familiar with the matter, that Mnuchin’s office put the request in writing but that the ask was “eventually deemed unnecessary” after department officials considered it.

A spokesman for the Treasury Department told ABC News that Mnuchin requested the government plane because it was “imperative that he have access to secure communications.”

“It is our practice to consider a wide range of options to ensure he has these capabilities during his travel, including the possible use of military aircraft,” the spokesman said.

An Air Force spokesman told ABC News that the operation of a government jet like the one Mnuchin requested could cost approximately $25,000 per hour.

An unnamed official in the Treasury Department’s Office of Inspector General said the office began an “inquiry” into Mnuchin’s request for honeymoon transport.

Mnuchin’s travel in late August with his wife Louise Linton is already under review as to whether Mnuchin and Linton used the trip to Kentucky, which included a trip to Fort Knox, to watch the solar eclipse.

Linton herself brought up the subject of honeymoon travel in an Instagram comments-section argument she got into after tagging high-end fashion brands like Hermès, Tom Ford and Valentino in a photograph of herself dismounting a government plane on a “daytrip to Kentucky.”

“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,” Linton wrote. “Do you think the US govt paid for our honeymoon or personal travel?! Lololol.”

Latest Livewire
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: