US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin is a wretched and greedy man. Mnuchin has found himself what seems to be an equally wretched and greedy wife. Louise Linton, a former actress, loves being in the social media zeitgeist. Up until a little while ago, she would post pretty regularly on her Instagram account. That account has gone from public to private after she posted this, and had a fight with someone who dared point out that in a time where income inequality is reaching historic highs, flaunting your wealth while traveling on the public’s dime is … gauche.
If you cannot read it, Linton’s post above, looking like a two-dimensional cartoon of a vapid rich lady, reads:
Great #daytrip to #Kentucky! #nicest #people #beautiful #countryside #rolandmouret pants, #tomford sunnies #hermesscarf, and #valentinorockstudheels #valentino #usa.
Fucking. Gross.
Someone named jennimiller29 writes a response.
Glad we could pay for your little getaway. #deplorable.
Linton, who has already shown you how classy she is by hash-tagging the material wealth she is wearing, goes in because her feelings are hurt—and she probably doesn’t know how much longer she will get to be the Treasury Secretary’s wife before this national nightmare ends.
Awe!!! Did you think this was a personal trip? Adorable! Do you think the US govt paid for our honeymoon or personal travel?! Lololol, 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. You’re adorably out of touch. Thanks for the passive aggressive nasty comment. Your kids look very cute. Your life looks cute, I know you're mad but deep down you're really nice and so am I. Sending me passive aggressive Instagram comments isn't going to make life feel better. Maybe a nice message filled with wisdom and hunanity [sp?] would get more traction. Have a pleasant evening. Go chill out and watch the new game of thrones. It's fab!
If you are “sacrificing” a tiny percentage of your wealth while your husband helps himself and other billionaires to the nation’s coffers, you aren’t “sacrificing” much of anything. Unless of course you mean your soul. In that case—yes, Ms. Linton, you are a bigger demon than we are. The New York Times spoke with Miller, who is a national hero by my estimation.
“If she hadn’t made her account private, I would have written back with a very snide Marie Antoinette joke,” Ms. Miller said.
“I think my post was just five or six words, and she had to go on basically a rant about it to make herself look more important and look smarter, better, richer — all those things,” she said, adding that she regretted letting Ms. Linton get under her skin.
Ms. Miller could not understand why Ms. Linton highlighted her brand labels on a trip to Kentucky, a state with a high poverty rate.
This isn’t a new position for Linton. A little over a year ago she came under fire for very similar feelings about her memoir about her time in Zambia—something she trotted off to do during her ”gap year.” That memoir had to be pulled from the shelves after her racist, old-timey idiotic depiction of Zambia/all of Africa drove anybody who read it to write angrily about how full of shit and the worst kinds of privilege Linton was. Zambian poet Lydia Ngoma shared some of her thoughts on the book you can read here. Here are some highlights showing that Ms. Linton has always had a way of looking at the world that doesn’t include facts.
Firstly, while Zambia is close to countries that have faced civil conflict such as Angola and Congo, there has not been one instance of Congolese rebels crossing over into the country’s borders I can think of. In fact, Zambia remains one of the top ten most peaceful countries in Africa and played an important role in offering secure refuge for those that fled the conflict in the above mentioned countries. So I am confused as to which place in Zambia Linton is recalling when she described having to hide to avoid rebel shooting.
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Thirdly, Linton references a little HIV-positive girl in the northern province called Zimba. This character is the only positive thing she highlights in her piece. However, here it does not quite add up either. She mentions that the girl is from the Bemba community, but where Linton slips up is the name. Zimba, as any Zambian knows is an eastern name. It is almost exclusive to the eastern province, and some parts of Malawi. But the Bemba tribe live in the north. It would be like finding a white, French person being called Xin Li in the 19th century. It just doesn’t happen. Zambians, especially rural Zambians, take pride in the tradition of naming and so it is not possible that a little girl would be given a name from another tribe. My deduction is that this character was made up or at least exaggerated for her memoir’s heart-warming factor. It’s sad she didn’t get her facts right but Africa is just Africa… we’re all the same, right?
Linton isn’t a young girl anymore but she has the ability to process her feelings the way one does when they aren’t taught better. The rich aren’t better than you or me, they’re just rich, and their trickle-down economic philosophies are only matched by their trickle-down contempt.
Tuesday, Aug 22, 2017 · 7:17:40 PM +00:00
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Walter Einenkel
Here’s an update from Vanity Fair, who priced out Mrs. Linton’s public display—and gave a low estimate.
A rough estimate suggests it goes well into the thousands. The Tom Fordsunglasses retail for $445, the Hermès scarf for $940, the Valentino heels are $995, and the Roland Mouret trousers are $1,395 (though they are now on sale for $348). The cost of a Hermès Birkin bag usually starts around $10,000 but can go upwards of $150,000. Regardless of which one exactly Linton slung on her arm, it most certainly cost thousands of dollars. This brings the low estimate for her outfit—which managed to stay perfectly crisp and white en route from Kentucky—to $13,775.
Yup. I’m sure she and her husband “earned” that money.