Hollywood producer turned Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is facing backlash after urging an audience at a Friday event to check out his latest flick “Lego Batman,” a movie he produced right before taking on his Cabinet post in the Trump administration.
“Well, I’m not allowed to promote anything that I’m involved in,” Mnuchin told Axios executive editor Mike Allen.
“So I just want to have the legal disclosure that you’ve asked me the question and I am not promoting any product,” he said. “But you should send all your kids to ‘Lego Batman.’”
In a statement on Friday, Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said, “It’s clear that Mnuchin did not learn any lessons from the Kellyanne Conway affair. This kind of thing happened, and will continue to happen, when there is a White House that does not take disciplinary action for ethical lapses.”
A rep for the Treasury Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
White House senior counselor Kellyanne Conway was criticized for promoting first daughter Ivanka Trump’s merchandise line during an interview on “Fox & Friends,” last month when she told viewers to “go buy Ivanka’s stuff.”
The White House took no disciplinary action against Conway.