Treasury Secretary’s Wife Insists She’s a Regular Person

Lousie Linton opens up to Elle.

Louise Linton
Louise Linton attends GREY GOOSE Le Martini et Vous evening at Devil's Advocate on July 16, 2014 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Martin Grimes/Getty Images for Grey Goose)
Getty Images for Grey Goose

Louise Linton, the wife of U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, made headlines when she melted down on Instagram after people criticized her the picture she posted of herself descending the steps of a government jet and hashtagging her Hermes scarf, Tom Ford sunglasses and Valentino outfit. “I was feeling like a regular person. And regular people, when someone says something mean to you on social media, regular people are allowed to respond,” she said in a new interview with Elle. Linton, who loves Soul Cycle, calligraphy, big-band jazz and using the dog filter on Snapchat, seems to have a “fantastical idea of what a political wife should act like,” writes Elle. She grew up incredibly wealthy, in a castle, in the suburbs of the Edinburgh, the Scottish capital. Her father was a property developer. She went to Pepperdine University in order to become an actress, and she was married once before Mnuchin, who she met at a party. She published a tone-deaf memoir after college about her time in Zambia, which was highly criticized for being a stark example of white upper-class privilege (and because there were a lot of factual inaccuracies). In fact, Linton took it out of print and issued a public apology. The Elle profile, also discusses Linton’s love for dogs, including a tidbit that she paid for a homeless man’s dog’s surgery in LA. It is safe to say this profile will not help boost Linton’s public image, with many taking to social media to criticize what she says and the picture that accompanies the article.

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