have already been heckling mr mnuchin as inept amid reports that the united states was on the verge of making an agreement with china that was viewed as merely symbolicimagecredital drago for the new york timesmr mnuchin has at times found himself the subject of derision characterized as a fawning banker who cannot tell the president nolast year the treasury secretary was scoffed at by economic policymakers from across the political spectrum for insisting that the 15 trillion trump tax cuts would pay for themselves nearly every independent economic analysis found otherwise and the analysis produced by the department was mocked for its lack of rigorhe has also clashed with some of the more conservative members of the republican party last year as the white house pressed lawmakers to raise the ceiling on how much the government can borrow mr mnuchin told members of the conservative house freedom caucus to vote for the debt ceiling for me his plea was met with groans and hisseshis stance on social issues has also propelled him into controversy last august fellow alumni of yale where mr mnuchin earned a bachelors degree called on the secretary to resign when he defended mr trumps handling of racially inspired violence in charlottesville va a month later lawrence summers a clinton administration treasury secretary called mr mnuchin the greatest sycophant in cabinet history for supporting mr trumps criticism of football players who knelt during the national anthemhis travel as well has been the subject of fierce scrutiny including a treasury inspector general investigation after he took several government planes to travel to places such as new york and miami at a cost of nearly 1 million he drew fire for inquiring about the use of an official military jet for his honeymoon and for taking time out of a trip to fort knox to watch a solar eclipse with his wife louise lintonwhen he returned to los angeles for the holidays last december he found a box of horse manure addressed to him waiting near his homemr mnuchin publicly brushes off the criticism and points to his role in successfully steering the republican tax cut package which many said would never pass through congresswithin the treasury department mr mnuchin has developed a reputation as a micromanager he resisted choosing a fulltime deputy for more than a year preferring to oversee everything from carrying out the new tax law to overseeing financial sanctionsthat has at times created problems when the internal revenue service systems failed on tax day the response to the crash was slowed because mr mnuchin was in new hampshire at a tax event with ivanka trump the presidents daughter he had required that any big decisions be cleared by him according to a senior government officiala treasury spokesman said that this reflected the secretarys commitment to being handson when problems arose and did not slow the responsemr mnuchins closest aides describe him as a collegial and mentoring figure despite his earnest persona on television he