--- title: Louise Linton Apologizes for Controversial Instagram Post description: The wife of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin apologized following a controversial exchange on Instagram. canonical: https://time.com/4911605/louse-linton-instagram-post-apology/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-22T22:07:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T09:30:35.796Z article:section: Politics og:title: Louise Linton Apologizes for 'Highly Insensitive' Instagram Exchange og:description: "It was inappropriate and highly insensitive" og:url: https://time.com/4911605/louse-linton-instagram-post-apology/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d9f455ae7404fbc/6988daa3656a3f69d1bd1613/louise-linton-fundraiser.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Pathway To The Cures For Breast Cancer Fundraiser og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Louise Linton Apologizes for 'Highly Insensitive' Instagram Exchange twitter:description: "It was inappropriate and highly insensitive" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d9f455ae7404fbc/6988daa3656a3f69d1bd1613/louise-linton-fundraiser.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Louise Linton Apologizes for 'Inappropriate and Highly Insensitive' Instagram Exchange > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=746defa5-2f95-4660-8187-b604abd2fdcf&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: 'Adorably Out of Touch.' Treasury Secretary's Wife Lashes Out at Critic After Flaunting Designer Clothes [Watch (HLS stream): 'Adorably Out of Touch.' Treasury Secretary's Wife Lashes Out at Critic After Flaunting Designer Clothes](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/2Lyg6aaH.m3u8) (1:09)  _Published 2017-08-22. Louise Linton, the wife of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, blasted as "adorably out of touch" a person who criticized her Instagram post in which Linton depicted her designer-label outfit._  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Aug 22, 2017 10:07 PM UTC  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Aug 22, 2017 10:07 PM UTC Louise Linton, the wife of Treasury Secretary [Steven Mnuchin](http://time.com/4832219/donald-melania-trump-mnuchin-wedding/), has apologized following a controversial exchange on Instagram where she decried a user who was criticizing her for being “out of touch” and derided her for paying a smaller amount in taxes. “I apologize for my post on social media yesterday as well as my response. It was inappropriate and highly insensitive,” Linton said in a statement from her publicist. [ CNN first reported the statement.](http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/22/politics/louise-linton-steve-mnuchin-instagram/index.html) Linton found herself facing outcry Monday after she posted a photograph on Instagram of herself and Mnuchin exiting a government plane following a trip to Kentucky, hashtagging the different high-end designers she was presumably wearing, which included Valentino and Hermes. > [](https://twitter.com/JDiamond1/status/900087376197890048) One user, jenimiller29, wrote, “glad we could pay for your little getaway. #Deplorable.” Linton responded with a lengthy post, which included calling the user “adorably out of touch.” (The user was [identified by the New York _Times_ ](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/22/us/politics/mnuchin-louise-linton-treasury-instagram.html?referer=)as Jenni Miller, a 45-year-old woman from Portland, Ore.). “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 willing to sacrifice if the choice was yours,” Linton wrote. > [](https://twitter.com/margarita/status/899806489686179840) She has since made her Instagram account private, but not before screenshots of the exchange ricocheted across the internet. ## Transcript I really thought that it was just another example of the excess, had caused the issue. Because I had just been reading about with the secret service budget over time and some of the other things that we have seen over the last few months. And it also Upset me because here was a person getting off the government airplane. On what I assume was a government trip, with a government official. Honestly didn't know who se was. I assume she was the secretary's wife, but didn't know her name or anything but to then be tagging everything she was wearing, with all this expensive European designers names just. Seemed ridiculous and, quite frankly, offended me as someone who paid for part of their trip. It was very ironic that she was calling me out of touch and assuming things about me and Just being so incredibly condescending and so incredibly rude. But, it really fit in with her original posts. 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