Eight years ago, Larry Summers ventured the opinion that “Steven Mnuchin may be the greatest sycophant in Cabinet history.” Summers, a former US Treasury secretary and former president of Harvard University, was reacting to Mnuchin’s refusal to condemn Donald Trump’s observation that there were “some very fine people” at a 2017 neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Va.
A few months later, Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank catalogued additional Mnuchin bootlickery, e.g., Trump “has got perfect genes” and is “unbelievably healthy.” Milbank wrote: “There is no longer need for a qualifier.” “It’s Official,” the Post’s headline declared; “Steven Mnuchin is the greatest sycophant in Cabinet history.”
My, how things do change.
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