This weekend, Trump’s Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin received an unseemly gift as a box of poop was delivered to his Bel Air home.
The LAPD and Secret Service responded after neighbors spotted the suspicious package, with the police claiming that they found a “pretty good quantity” of horse manure.
The identity of the gift-giver has been revealed as Robby Strong, a psychologist for Los Angeles County. Strong proudly documented the entire affair on social media, even going so far as to post onto Facebook, “No disguises, no fake names. Totally owning this one. You’re only powerless if you do nothing!!!”
The package included a card, on which Strong wrote “We’re returning the ‘gift’ of the Christmas tax bill. It’s bulls‑‑‑.”
He signed it, “Warmest Wishes, The American People.”
Per Strong, he delivered freshly shoveled manure to two LA homes that he believed to belong to Mnuchin. One was in Beverly Hills, the other was the one in Bel Air that ultimately saw a visit by the authorities.
He was by no means remorseful for the Christmas present that grabbed national attention.
“LOL!” Strong wrote on Facebook. “It was pure organic horses‑‑‑, just like everything that administration’s done so far. Bomb scares certainly were not my intention, but maybe they should be a little scared, eh.”
“In the long run, if we don’t do stuff like this, what are we going to have left?” Strong told KPCC. “What I did, I would like to compare to what Jesus did when he went into the temple and overturned the tables of the money-changers, who were exploiting the people financially in the name of religion. I feel like that’s what the GOP has done to the American people.”
Strong was not arrested following his encounter with the Secret Service.
“It was a gift-wrapped package of poo,” Strong told AL.com. “Is there a law that you can’t drop off a box of poo? Not really.”
This is not Mnuchin’s first tangle with controversy. Earlier this year, Mnuchin and his wife, Louise Linton, were thrust into the national spotlight after a government inquiry into their use of government travel – sparked by Linton’s patronizing response to a critic on Instagram – revealed that the Treasury Secretary requested a government jet for him and his wife to travel on their honeymoon to France, Scotland, and Italy this summer.
Mnuchin and Linton have also come under fire for allegedly using a U.S. Air Force jet – which comes at a cost of $25,000 per hour to operate – to view the solar eclipse last month in Fort Knox, Kentucky, which falls within the “line of totality,” where the eclipse could be best experienced.
This may not have been the Christmas gift that Mnuchin wanted, but it was definitely the one he deserves.
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