Louise Linton Apologizes for ‘Inappropriate and Highly Insensitive’ Instagram Exchange

Louise Linton, the wife of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, 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.

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.

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 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.

She has since made her Instagram account private, but not before screenshots of the exchange ricocheted across the internet.