Image by Getty Images

By Nathan Guttman March 9, 2017

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is having a hard time filling top positions in his office.

The reason does not rest in Treasury becoming, all of a sudden, less attractive to aspiring politicians and top financial minds, but rather in Mnuchin’s picks lacking one key quality – loyalty to President Donald Trump.

According to reports in Bloomberg and Axios many of the names offered by Mnuchin to fill senior Treasury positions were shot down by Trump’s White House.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis of the crisis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Among the top picks that Mnuchin failed to pass are one who was posted critical tweets about Trump and another who did not pass the vetting because he donated to Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

Is Mnuchin being too liberal with his picks or is the White House micromanaging the staffing process?

Probably the latter. Mnuchin, who comes with Wall Street and Hollywood background may be close to more liberal figures than others in the Trump administration, but the problem is shared by other cabinet secretaries as well, including Rex Tillerson at the State Department and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, both known for their conservative views.

Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected] or on Twitter @nathanguttman

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

This year, we have stood together in strength and sorrow. Our Forward team has worked around the clock to help you find clarity amid the chaos.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism. 

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$36 $500

$120 $180 Other amount