A new scandal is brewing in Washington D.C.
But this one has nothing to do with Donald Trump.
Instead, the wife of Trump‘s chosen Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, has sparked severe backlash after bragging in an Instagram post about her designer wardrobe …
… while stepping off a United States government plane.
Louise Linton, a 36-year-old Scottish-born actress, flaunted her very rich lifestyle in a message she shared yesterday, publishing a photo of herself and her husband after they and their plane touched down on a tarmac.
“Great #daytrip to #Kentucky!” she wrote in the photo’s caption, having just arrived from a day with Senator Mitch McConnell.
Linton then made sure to hashtag the labels she was wearing, including designers Tom Ford, Hermès, Valentino and Roland Mouret.
The citing of these designers didn’t sit well with Jenni Miller, a mother of three from Oregon who responded to Linton’s photo and accompanying caption as follows:
“Glad we could pay for your little getaway #deplorable.”
In reply to this critique, Linton lashed out at Miller, inciting a bit of class warfare in talking down to someone she assumes is far below her in status.
“Awe!!! Did you think this was a personal trip? Adorable! Do you think the US govt paid for our honeymoon or personal travel?! Lololol,” Linton wrote, before penning the sentence that really got her in trouble online:
“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 be willing to sacrifice if the choice was yours.”
It’s safe to assume that Linton and her husband pay more in taxes than Miller due to their top income bracket.
But many would argue it’s also safe to assume they can afford to do so, thanks to their multi-million dollar bank account.
Most annoyingly to Internet users, however, was the presumption that not only is Linton going through some kind of major “sacrifice” as a result of this tax burden… but that Miller would not do the same if she were also very well off.
Linton wasn’t done, either.
“Your kids look very cute. Your life looks cute,” she wrote in total condescension to Miller, adding:
“I know you’re mad but deep down you’re really nice and so am I. Sending me passive aggressive Instagram comments isn’t going to make life feel better.”
After getting roasted online for her responses, Linton went ahead and made her Instagram account private.
“If she hadn’t made her account private, I would have written back with a very snide Marie Antoinette joke,” Miller told the New York Times, noting that she thought Linton’s post was “wholly inappropriate.”
How come?
“I think my post was just five or six words, and she had to go on basically a rant about it to make herself look more important and look smarter, better, richer – all those things.”
It’s also worth asking:
What kind of person in general feels a need to alert the world about the designer clothes she’s wearing?
Let alone does so while walking off a government plane after, supposedly, conducting government business?!?