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Report: Now Steve Mnuchin Could Get Whacked, Too

CNN cites official saying Treasury secretary is in peril after banker-call debacle.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s job could be in “serious jeopardy” after his disastrous attempt to calm plunging markets this week seemed to make matters worse, sources tell CNN. “Mnuchin is under the gun,” an anonymous official told the cable-news outlet, though a Trump administration insider called the allegations “nonsense.” Mnuchin, one of Trump’s closest advisers, spooked Wall Street over the weekend when he issued a statement that said he had spoken with the heads of major U.S. banks on Sunday and that the banks had “ample liquidity”—though there was no indication that the banking system was in any type of peril. In an abbreviated session Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped by 2.9 percent and the S&P 500 fell 2.7 percent—the biggest drops ever for the key indexes on Christmas Eve. The market movements were believed to be a reaction to Trump’s critical tweets about Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. On Christmas Day, Trump said he remained confident in Mnuchin but was still unhappy with the Fed, which last week raised interest rates.