Donald Trump throws Steve Mnuchin under the bus

Donald Trump has spent the past few weeks spewing conspiracy theories and golfing, while making Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin do his bidding in the stimulus relief check negotiations. Now Trump is publicly trashing the bill that Mnuchin negotiated, and demanding that it’s not good enough.

Of course the real victims here are the many millions of Americans who haven’t been able feed their families this week because Trump has been playing deranged games. But Trump is also humiliating Mnuchin in the process. It’s led some observers to ask why Mnuchin hasn’t resigned in protest, in the hope of keeping some shred of his dignity intact.

The answer to this may be straightforward. By all accounts Steve Mnuchin committed felony obstruction of justice by unilaterally preventing the Treasury Department from honoring a subpoena for Donald Trump’s tax returns. So Mnuchin may be sticking around and humiliating himself simply because he needs a pardon from Trump.