Treasury Secretary Mnuchin Uses Military Jet for Solar Eclipse Viewing Trip to Kentucky

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and his wife Louise Linton took a government plane to Louisville and Fort Knox, Kentucky on August 21, 2017, ostensibly for official business but coinciding with viewing the total solar eclipse. Mnuchin viewed the eclipse from the lawn of Fort Knox alongside Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The group used an Air Force C-37B at a cost of $26,900.25, approximately $9,400 more than a commercial FAA plane would have cost. Between spring and fall 2017, Mnuchin took seven separate trips on military aircraft at a total cost of nearly $1 million, with the Fort Knox eclipse trip costing $33,046 in total.

Background

The Treasury’s Office of Inspector General reviewed the August 21 flight to determine whether all applicable travel, ethics, and appropriation laws and policies were observed. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a FOIA request after Treasury officials failed to provide information about the trip. While Mnuchin’s office denied he took the trip to watch the eclipse, claiming he was there for meetings on tax code overhaul, the timing on the day of the total solar eclipse and the location directly in the path of totality raised obvious questions about the true purpose.

The trip sparked public controversy after Linton posted a photo on Instagram of herself and Mnuchin getting off the Air Force jet, tagging expensive designer clothes she was wearing including Hermès, Valentino, and Tom Ford. When an Instagram user commented “Glad we could pay for your little getaway. #deplorable,” Linton responded with a condescending attack: “Aw!!! Did you think this was a personal trip?! Adorable! Do you think the US govt paid for our honeymoon or personal travel?!” She later deleted the post and apologized, though two people familiar with the matter said she was not aware her husband had actually requested government travel for their honeymoon.

Significance

Mnuchin’s pattern of using military aircraft for trips with questionable official justification exemplified Cabinet officials’ sense of entitlement to taxpayer-funded luxury. The eclipse trip’s timing and location made the claimed business purpose transparently pretextual, yet Treasury officials maintained the fiction of official meetings. Linton’s Instagram boasting and condescending response to a taxpayer’s criticism revealed the contempt Trump administration officials and their families had for ordinary citizens funding their lifestyle. The contrast between Mnuchin’s claimed need for secure communications justifying military aircraft and Linton’s public social media posts undermined the security rationale. The nearly $1 million in military aircraft costs Mnuchin accumulated in less than a year far exceeded his predecessors’ travel expenses, establishing a pattern of waste and abuse that would characterize his tenure.