The US Senate on Monday confirmed Steven Mnuchin as Donald Trump’s treasury secretary, elevating a former Goldman Sachs banker to one of the administration’s highest roles in shaping economic policy.



Mnuchin was approved on a mostly party-line vote of 53-47 with Joe Manchin, a senator facing re-election in 2018 in conservative West Virginia, acting as the lone Democrat to vote in Mnuchin’s favor. The vote capped off yet another contentious debate in the Senate over Trump’s fledgling administration, as Democrats cried foul over Mnuchin’s ties to Wall Street.



Mnuchin, who served as Trump’s campaign finance chairman, was accused by Democrats of overseeing a “foreclosure machine” while at the helm of OneWest bank from 2009 to 2015.



Senator Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat who sits on the banking, housing and urban affairs committee, said Wall Street had received a signal that “now there’s no sheriff in town”.

“You can get away with anything with Steve Mnuchin as secretary of the treasury,” Brown said on the Senate floor just ahead of the chamber’s vote.



Trump’s choice of Mnuchin stood at odds with his rhetoric on the campaign trail, where he repeatedly decried Hillary Clinton for giving paid speeches to Wall Street while vowing to lift up working-class Americans.



Mnuchin, whose net worth is estimated at $400m will join the wealthiest cabinet in US history.

Republicans defended Mnuchin’s résumé, highlighting his experience in the financial sector as an asset for the job.

Trump's cabinet Confirmed

James Mattis (Defense), John Kelly (Homeland Security), Rex Tillerson (State), Elaine Chao (Transportation), Nikki Haley (United Nations), Betsy DeVos (Education), Jeff Sessions (Attorney General), Tom Price (Health and Human Services), Steve Mnuchin (Treasury), David Shulkin (Veterans Affairs), Scott Pruitt (Environmental Protection Agency), Wilbur Ross (Commerce), Ryan Zinke (Interior), Rick Perry (Energy), Ben Carson (Housing and Urban Development), Sonny Perdue (Agriculture), Alexander Acosta (Labor) Awaiting Senate approval

Linda McMahon (Small Business Association), Mick Mulvaney (Office of Management and Budget director), Robert Lighthizer (US trade representative) Withdrawn

Andrew Puzder (Labor) Not yet announced

Council of Economic Advisers chair



Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said Mnuchin “is smart, he’s capable, and he’s got impressive private-sector experience”.

Mnuchin will soon be in charge of reforming the tax code, a top priority for Republicans, as well as imposing economic sanctions on foreign governments and individuals, including Russia.



During his Senate confirmation hearing, Mnuchin was aggressively grilled over his tenure at the California-based OneWest bank.



In 2009, Mnuchin assembled a group of investors to buy the failed IndyMac bank, whose collapse the year before was the second biggest bank failure of the financial crisis. He renamed it OneWest and turned it around, selling it for a handsome profit in 2014.



OneWest foreclosed on more than 36,000 homeowners in the state and 24,000 additional households around the country, according to housing advocacy groups. Mnuchin pushed back during his confirmation hearing on charges that he had seized on the financial crisis, even though he and his partners sold OneWest in 2015 for a profit of roughly $1.5bn.



Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, said, “I simply cannot forgive somebody who took a look at that banking crisis and took a look at the pain that Wall Street had sent in a wave across all of America, and thought, ‘Ah, there’s a great new way to make money, foreclosing on people.”’

Congressman Maxine Waters of California, the top Democrat on the House financial services committee, called Mnuchin “the foreclosure king”.

Democrats also complained that Mnuchin failed to disclose nearly $100m in assets on forms he filed with the Senate finance committee.



In his testimony before the committee, Mnuchin defended his actions while heading OneWest. He said he had worked hard during the financial crisis to assist homeowners with refinancing so that they could remain in their homes.

He told the committee that his bank had extended more than 100,000 loan modifications to borrowers.

Mnuchin called his failure to disclose assets an oversight. After meeting with committee staff Mnuchin amended his disclosure forms and also disclosed his position as director of Dune Capital International in the Cayman Islands, a well-known offshore tax haven.

When pressed by Democrats to explain the omissions, Mnuchin said: “I did not use a Cayman Island entity in any way to avoid taxes for myself. There was no benefit to me.”

The Senate also voted unanimously on Monday to confirm David Shulkin to serve as the secretary of Veterans Affairs. Shulkin, the VA undersecretary for health since July 2015, was the only Obama appointee to remain among Trump’s cabinet nominees.



The physician was also among the only Trump picks who did not meet opposition from Democrats, who focused their attention Monday on Mnuchin.



Dick Durbin, the No 2 Democrat in the Senate, said Mnuchin’s confirmation had sent a loud and clear message that “the banks are going to have the best friend they can have in the treasury department”.