If you’re like everyone else in America, you’ve got some questions for Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.
For instance, you might ask him the following: why in God’s name would you let a picture of yourself holding up a sheet of actual dollar bills bearing your actual signature escape onto Twitter right in the middle of an extraordinarily contentious debate about a GOP tax plan that some claim disproportionately benefits the rich?
And further, why would you invite Louise Linton into that picture given that just two months ago, she created a PR nightmare after first tagging Hermes, Roland Mouret, Tom Ford and Valentino in a picture of herself stepping off a plane and then proceeding to go full-Marie Antoinette on a member of America’s rapidly expanding peasant class who dared to suggest that taxpayer dollars might have subsidized the jet.
Finally, even if you were inclined to ignore the obviously bad optics and invite Louise Linton into the picture (because you know, commemorating the moment when your actual name first appeared on actual money is important and those visuals make for great oil paintings that can be framed in gold and hung in your marital bedroom), why would you not gently suggest that she not strike the most nefarious pose imaginable?
The answer to all of those questions, according to Mnuchin, is this:
I didn’t realize that the pictures were public and going on the internet and viral.
That’s what Steve told Chris Wallace on Sunday when asked about the now infamous images which only seemed to underscore the idea that this administration is run by James Bond villains.
Asked specifically whether he and his wife are in fact James Bond villains, Mnuchin said the following:
Sec Mnuchin on @FoxNewsSunday responds to criticism over photos of him and his wife posing with dollar bills featuring his signature: “I never thought I’d be quoted as looking like villains from the James Bond, I guess I should take that as a compliment.” pic.twitter.com/hoggpXFj0a
— Pat Ward (@WardDPatrick) November 19, 2017
Nothing further.
Mnucin: “I guess I should take that as a compliment.” He says it as it is. A villan would see it just that way.
The trove of incomparable villanous characters that Trump has dragged into America’s life must have been freed from Arkham Asylum (Fox Gotham TV series: http://gotham.wikia.com/wiki/Arkham_Asylum). There’s no other way to explain the behavior of specimens such as Jeff Sessions, Rex Tillerson, Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller, Sean Spicer, Sonny Perdue, Betsy DeVos, Ryan Zinke, Ben Carson, Rick Perry, Scott Pruitt, Mick Mulvaney, John Kelly, Tom Price, Andrew Puzder, Anthony Scaramucci, Michael Flynn, Jared Kushner, Sebastian Gorka, Carter Page, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates and the rest of Trump’s parade.
Yet, in the end, the first and greatest escape from Arkham Asylum, had to have been by the #1 villan of all time: The Dictator & Fucking Moron-in-Chief, Donnie Trump.
That boom boom boom you hear is me beating the drum in your parade of villains! I want to be sure these two are mentioned by name; they are so damned deserving! Sarah ‘Horseface’ Sanders and Kellyanne ‘Con’way.
Oh, now I see Hope Hicks running to catch up! I also see those 3 kids of his hitchin’ a free ride!
boom boom boom!
“And further, why would you invite Louise Linton into that picture given that just two months ago, she created a PR nightmare after first tagging Hermes, Roland Mouret, Tom Ford and Valentino in a picture of herself stepping off a plane and then proceeding to go full-Marie Antoinette on a member of America’s rapidly expanding peasant class who dared to suggest that taxpayer dollars might have subsidized the jet.”
First of all, as Louise and so many other persons, places and things have proven. . .
There are no “PR nightmares” in Trumpland.