“It’s both unusual and seemed unnecessary,” a Bush administration official said.
By Damian Paletta Damian Paletta Reporter covering economic policy Email Bio Follow February 27 at 2:45 PM The French government on Tuesday announced U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin would meet with French president Emmanuel Macron in Paris and hold a press conference with finance minister Bruno Le Maire.
Mnuchin’s trip, parts of which he has now chronicled on social media, is the latest in a string of events that show he is continuing to do things his own way, at times avoiding public scrutiny even if that has traditionally been part of the job.Just this week, one of Treasury’s two inspector generals released an analysis of the new tax law Tuesday but withheld “information reflecting [the Internal Revenue Service’s] decisionmaking process.
Last week, after meeting with Chinese officials, Mnuchin said the United States and China had reached a “one of the strongest agreements ever on currency,” a development that would have represented a major accord between the two countries. But U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told Congress on Wednesday that in fact no agreement on currency had been finalized.
For example, Mnuchin met with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman 19 days after journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered at the Saudi consulate in Turkey. Democrats and Republicans have accused the Trump administration of failing to hold top officials in the Saudi government responsible for the death. Mnuchin’s meeting that day, like his meeting in France, was announced by a foreign government, not by Treasury.
Even though a number of foreign leaders have expressed exasperation with Trump, Mnuchin has developed a rapport with his foreign counterparts. France is hosting a major summit of world leaders later this year, known as the G-7, and a number of countries have been anxious to know whether Trump will soften his protectionist trade agenda.Neal’s committee tried to summon the Treasury chief to testify during the government shutdown, but Mnuchin declined.
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