Steve Mnuchin

Still working for Trump?

donald trump shutting a clapperboard that says "Taking Down the Cabal"

From Hollywood and Wall Street to DC and back again.

Steven Mnuchin’s career spans multiple domains—Wall Street, Hollywood, government, and global private equity. While he is widely known for serving as U.S. Treasury Secretary from 2017 to 2021 under Trump, his broader significance lies in how his trajectory reflects deeper shifts in modern finance. His career connects capital flows across sectors and borders, linking financial crises, public policy, entertainment, and sovereign wealth investment.

Mnuchin’s path is not simply a sequence of roles, but a consistent application of a core strategy: identifying moments of disruption, mobilizing capital, and leveraging institutional relationships. From restructuring a failed bank during the 2008 financial crisis, to shaping economic policy in government, to raising billions from global investors and re-entering Hollywood through corporate ownership, the same pattern repeats in different forms.

Mnuchin’s career could be broken down into three phases, all of which build upon each other.

1. Pre-government: Wall Street, Hollywood, and the financial crisis.

2. Government: Treasury leadership and global financial diplomacy.

3. Post-government: Private equity, sovereign capital, and media investment.

I. Pre-Government Career and the Financial Crisis

Goldman Sachs and Early Investment Work

Mnuchin began his career at Goldman Sachs, where he spent 17 years developing expertise in capital markets and financial structuring. After leaving in 2002, he founded Dune Capital Management, which became the base for his investment activities across finance and entertainment.

At the same time, he launched Dune Entertainment, which specialized in financing major motion pictures. Rather than producing films creatively, Mnuchin operated as a financial partner, providing capital in exchange for a share of profits. This approach positioned him as part of a broader trend in which Wall Street firms began underwriting Hollywood production risk.

Dune and its successor ventures later helped finance films tied to major studios, including Fox and Warner Bros., participating in large-scale “slate” deals that spread risk across multiple projects. Over time, these partnerships contributed to films that collectively generated tens of billions in global box office revenue.

The Financial Crisis: IndyMac and OneWest

The defining moment of Mnuchin’s early career came during the 2008 financial crisis, when the collapse of the U.S. housing market created widespread banking failures. IndyMac, a major subprime lender, failed in July 2008. The FDIC took control and sought investors to stabilize its assets.

In 2009, Mnuchin led a private investor group to acquire IndyMac’s assets. The group invested roughly $1.3–$1.6 billion. The FDIC provided “loss-sharing agreements”, limiting downside risk. The bank was relaunched as OneWest Bank, focusing on managing distressed mortgages and continuing lending operations.

By 2015, OneWest was sold to CIT Group for about $3.4 billion. This represented a highly profitable outcome and established Mnuchin as a skilled distressed-asset investor. The deal was controversial in that tens of thousands of homeowners were foreclosed upon, and critics argued the structure privatized gains while limiting losses through government support.

This way of doing business became the new model. Consider if you will what I just described to you, a broken and corrupt system being replaced in a manner that didn’t require a complete demolition. Trump must have been watching this just prior to his announcing his run for President thinking, “Hmm… I could use this guy in replacing America’s financial system.” Or maybe they were already working together.

II. Treasury Secretary: Policy, Power, and Global Financial Networks

In 2017, Mnuchin transitioned from private investor to U.S. Treasury Secretary, placing him at the center of both domestic economic policy and global finance. As Treasury Secretary, Mnuchin oversaw key areas of the U.S. financial system:

• Government borrowing and debt management.

• Banking regulation and financial oversight.

• Economic policy implementation.

He played a leading role in passing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which reduced corporate tax rates and restructured aspects of the U.S. tax system. He also supported scaling back parts of post-crisis regulation, arguing that existing rules constrained lending and economic growth.

Covid Relief

Mnuchin oversaw programs such as:

• Direct payments to households.

• The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

• Emergency lending facilities in partnership with the Federal Reserve.

These measures aimed to stabilize financial markets, preserve employment, and prevent a deeper economic collapse. Similar to what he did during the financial crisis of 2008.

Middle East Engagement and Sovereign Wealth Relationships

One of the distinguishing features of Mnuchin’s tenure was his extensive engagement with Middle Eastern governments and sovereign wealth funds.

• He made roughly 18 official trips to Gulf nations during his tenure.

• He met at least 27 times with heads of sovereign wealth funds.

These funds—particularly those in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, and Kuwait—control vast pools of global capital and are influential investors in international markets.

Mnuchin’s activities in the region combined multiple objectives including, financial security and sanctions. He worked to coordinate the combat of terrorism financing and illicit financial flows. As well as the enforcement of economic sanctions, especially related to Venezuela and Iran.

Mnuchin worked towards developing closer economic partnerships between the U.S. and Gulf nations, having regular meetings not just with governments, but with sovereign wealth fund leadership. This represented a major shift in Treasury’s role going from government-to-government diplomacy to direct engagement with global pools of capital.

The Abraham Fund

In the final phase of his tenure, Mnuchin was involved in launching the Abraham Fund, a proposed $3 billion investment initiative tied to the Abraham Accords. The fund aimed to support infrastructure, energy, and development projects across the Middle East. It was intended to translate diplomatic agreements into economic cooperation. While the fund ultimately did not materialize in a lasting form, it illustrates a key theme of Mnuchin’s tenure, the blending of government policy with investment strategy and capital deployment frameworks.

It’s easy to see that the work Mnuchin did as Secretary of Treasury has led to where we are today with Trump’s actions in Venezuela and Iran. In particular, Mnuchin spent years cutting off Iran’s funding making them weak and vulnerable.

One can also see, if one thinks hard enough, that Mnuchin was working with the Middle Eastern oil countries to diversify their assets. Letting them know that the petrodollar system was going to fall. Diversify or die. Follow the path forward that Trump has laid out, or fall to the wayside, the choice is yours.

The relationships Mnuchin made and developed became central to the next phase of his career.

III. Post-Government: Private Equity and Global Capital

After leaving office in January 2021, Mnuchin returned quickly to private markets, founding Liberty Strategic Capital. Mnuchin raised approximately $2.5 billion, backed heavily by sovereign wealth funds, especially from the Middle East. These funds acted as limited partners, providing capital that Mnuchin’s firm deploys across sectors. This reflects the modern private equity model putting global capital into a centralized fund and diversifying the assets.

Investment Focus

Liberty Strategic Capital focuses on:

• Technology and cybersecurity

• Financial services

• “New content” and media investments

This diversified approach allows Mnuchin to operate across sectors while applying a consistent investment framework.

IV. Return to Hollywood and Media Finance

Mnuchin’s post-government activity marks a return to Hollywood—but in a different form from his earlier film-financing career.

Shift from Financing to Ownership

Before his time in government, Mnuchin financed individual films through slate deals focusing on risk-sharing and structured investments. After his time in government, he shifted toward ownership stakes in media companies, emphasizing long-term value creation at the corporate level. This reflects a broader transformation of Hollywood becoming increasingly financed through institutional capital rather than project-level deals.

Lionsgate: Core Investment

Mnuchin’s most significant move back into entertainment has been his investment in Lionsgate, a major film and television studio. Mnuchin made an initial stake of roughly 5.5% in 2023. He increased to about 7.9% in 2024 and expanded it to 13% by 2025, making his firm a major shareholder. By late January of 2026, Mnuchin joined the board of directors, giving him direct strategic influence. Lionsgate stock price is up 117% in the past year. Could Lionsgate be a confiscated asset (E.O. 13818)?

Care to guess which movie studio produced the biopic film about Trump’s good friend Michael Jackson? How about the themes and messaging in these big box office franchises also produced by Lionsgate—The Hunger Games, Twilight, American Psycho and John Wick.

The Hunger Games—Elites entertaining themselves by pitting working-class people against each other in a battle to the death.

Twilight—Centuries old vampires, essentially an elite bloodline of parasites feeding off the people.

American Psycho-There’s a character running the state of California that has an eerily similar appearance to the main character from American Psycho. Coincidence?

John Wick—An organized crime family killed his dog and burned down his house. They wouldn’t leave well enough alone as Wick sought revenge escalating things all the way to the top, all the way up to the High Table, the council of twelve crime lords who run the world.

Essentially, Trump is John Wick.

New Content and Digital Media

Mnuchin has also signaled interest in evolving media sectors. His fund targets “new forms of content”, including digital and technology-driven media, streaming platforms, interactive media, and digitally distributed content ecosystems. This aligns with the broader industry dynamics of media increasingly integrating with technology and global capital markets.

Continuity Across His Career

Despite the shift in scale and structure, Mnuchin’s approach remains consistent: to identify undervalued or transitional opportunities, deploy capital in structured, risk-controlled ways, and participate in upside while minimizing direct operational exposure. In Hollywood he has moved from financing films to influencing studios.

V. Reinvestment in Banking: NY Community Bancorp

Mnuchin has also continued investing in the financial sector. In 2024, his firm helped lead a $1+ billion investment into New York Community Bancorp. As part of the restructuring, Joseph Otting was brought in as CEO to assist with stabilization. I’m sure most reading this don’t recognize the name Joseph Otting, if you do, give yourself a gold star.

Joseph Otting was the Comptroller of the Currency in the Trump Administration. He was the top federal banking regulator. He oversaw all nationally chartered banks in the U.S. from late 2017 until he left in 2020. Trump also tapped him briefly as acting head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

In hindsight, I can see that many of the people Trump appointed in his first term and much of what he did during his first term, was about setting up what he would do in his second term and who would initiate those changes. Essentially, replacing the financial system. He brought them in to make the changes within the government, then put them back out into the private industry to initiate those changes.

One could also argue that the changes we seem to be experiencing today already took place during Trump’s first term, and we are just getting caught up to speed. It could be argued that American’s weren’t ready then, but they are now. In my opinion, it is probably a combination of the two. Some changes occurred in secrecy during Trump’s first term and are being publicly rolled out today, while some changes really are occurring today.

Mnuchin’s career reflects several broader trends.

Crisis investing—major financial disruptions create opportunities for large-scale private investment.

Public–Private mobility—senior figures increasingly move between government and private capital roles. Globalization of capital sovereign wealth funds play a growing role in U.S. markets.

Financialization of the media—entertainment is now deeply integrated into global investment strategies.

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Conclusion

Steven Mnuchin’s career reflects the interconnected nature of modern finance. During the financial crisis, he built wealth by acquiring distressed assets. As Treasury Secretary, he shaped economic policy while engaging directly with global capital. In the post-government phase, he leveraged those relationships to raise billions to invest across sectors—including banking and media.

Across all stages, his strategy has been consistent, deploying capital at scale during periods of transition, while operating at the intersection of finance, policy, and global investment. His career illustrates a broader reality of today’s economy, finance, government, and global capital which are increasingly interconnected systems, not separate domains. And within that system, individuals like Mnuchin function not only as participants—but as intermediaries linking those worlds together.

Many within MAGA view the cabinet in Trump’s first term as being inferior to his new cabinet. Why did he choose not to bring them back? The truth is, some of the original cabinet were “for show” and the rest have been unleashed into the private sector to initiate the real change. They’ve been let off the chain to rebuild the financial system. They’ve been let loose to take down the City of London.