Steven Mnuchin, Treasury Secretary?
While Donald Trump campaigned for president, he promised the American people that he would side with working Americans and “drain the swamp” in Washington. Instead, he’s taking sides with Wall Street and focusing his efforts on filling the swamp just about to the brim.
He’s nominating people like Steven Mnuchin to his cabinet. In a slap in the face to the working Americans that Trump said he would fight for, Mnuchin’s appointment was greeted with the headline “Wall Street Wins Again.” Here’s everything you need to know about the man Donald Trump tapped to lead the Treasury Department:
On OneWest Bank:
- Mnuchin ran OneWest bank, called a “foreclosure machine” during the financial crisis.
- The bank was widely criticized for its aggressive approach to foreclosing on homes during the financial crisis, and may have benefitted more than any other lender from the fallout of the housing crisis.
- OneWest foreclosed on tens of thousands of homeowners — including at least one voter who now regrets putting her trust in Donald Trump.
- Mnuchin’s bank also failed to lend to Black and Latino homebuyers and by keeping branches out of minority neighborhoods.
- When private equity players formed OneWest after acquiring its assets from the FDIC, it was referred to as perhaps “the most egregious case of taxpayers bearing the burden of bad bank debt.”
On Goldman Sachs:
- A seventeen-year veteran of Goldman Sachs, Bloomberg News described Mnuchin as “a true creature of Wall Street.”
- Mnuchin walked away with a $46 million golden parachute after his retirement from Goldman Sachs.
- Mnuchin’s appointment was met with cheers on Wall Street — where Goldman Sachs shares soared to their highest point in nearly 10 years.
Steven Mnuchin has a history of hurting middle-class Americans. That’s the story of his work over the past decade. Elizabeth Warren put it best when she said Trump is “literally handing the keys to the Treasury over to a Wall Street banker who helped cause the crash.”
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