Steven Mnuchin is on two intense missions this summer: the former investment banker is not only the executive producer of “Suicide Squad,” but also Donald Trump’s chief fundraiser.
Both Trump and “Suicide Squad” are on track to make plenty of money this summer, in spite of their many critics. Trump’s campaign announced that it raised roughly $80 million in July, mostly from small donations. But so far, Trump has spent this month plagued by campaign gaffes.
“Suicide Squad,” meanwhile, is on track to make upwards of $140 million this weekend — despite reviews as bad as some of the ones Trump has gotten from pundits.
“Suicide Squad” is about a ragtag group of criminals forced to do good to make up for their pasts. Mnuchin has a complicated past of his own, one that raised eyebrows when Trump named him his lead fundraiser in May.
He pocketed money stolen by Bernie Madoff, and Relativity Media, the studio behind “The Fighter,” once accused his bank of “violating bankruptcy procedures and for delaying the release of a movie recently considered to be the studio’s savior.”
Worst of all, in the eyes of some Republicans: He once supported Hillary Clinton. Here are all the details.
Mnuchin, who has produced films such as “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” “American Sniper” and “Mad Max: Fury Road,” financed the David Ayer-directed “Suicide Squad” along with Brett Ratner and James Packer. (The film stars Will Smith as Deadshot, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, and Viola Davis as government mastermind Amanda Waller.)
Mnuchin did not respond to TheWrap’s request for an interview, but he did tell Showbiz411 Tuesday, “You’d be surprised how many secret Republicans there are in Hollywood!”
On Wednesday, he told CNBC that the latest fundraising figures for Trump show “the incredible ground support there is for Donald Trump out there.”
Of course, Hillary Clinton earned $90 million in donations for the month of July — $10 million more than Trump.
But Mnuchin said that the Clinton camp has been planning for more than a decade, while he’s only been on the job for two months.
“It’s pretty incredible that we’re at 80 and they’re at $90 million and they’re obviously spending a lot more money than we are,” Mnuchin told CNBC.
Asked about reports of turmoil in the Trump campaign — especially after his fight with the parents of a Muslim soldier who died to save his unit — Mnucin told the business network: “This is all stuff that the press is just making up and talking about. I was at the campaign headquarters all day for the last two days. People could not be more excited about what’s going on.”