(Reuters) – The wife of U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has sniped at a critic on social media site Instagram who called her “deplorable” for a post highlighting her designer clothing as she exited a government plane.
The flap erupted after Mnuchin’s wife, Scottish-born actress Louise Linton, posted a photo of herself emerging from the aircraft wearing a white outfit and sunglasses, using the hashtags “#tomford,” “#hermesscarf” and #valentino,” according to images of the Monday evening post on social media.
Linton has since made her Instagram account private.
“Glad we could pay for your little getaway. #deplorable,” quipped a user of the service, Jenni Miller, identifying herself as a mother of three.
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Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said during her unsuccessful presidential run that now-U.S. President Donald Trump’s supporters were a “basket of deplorables.”
Linton shot back at Miller.
“Did you think this was a personal trip?! Adorable! Do you think the US govt paid for our honeymoon or personal travel?! Lololol,” she said, according to images of the response posted online. “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? I’m pretty sure we paid more taxes toward our day ‘trip’ than you did.”
Mnuchin is a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc executive and Hollywood film financier.
Trump ran on a populist campaign platform, vowing to improve the lives of working Americans, and has surrounded himself with a cabinet heavy on corporate titans, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, a former chief executive of Exxon Mobil Corp and financier Wilbur Ross, currently commerce secretary.
The U.S. Treasury did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Scott Malone in Boston; Additional reporting by Lindsay Dunsmuir in Washington; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Andrea Ricci)
