| WASHINGTON
President Donald Trump swore in former Goldman Sachs banker and Hollywood financier Steven Mnuchin as Treasury secretary on Monday, putting him to work on tax reform, financial de-regulation and economic diplomacy efforts.
The U.S. Senate voted to confirm Mnuchin 53-47, with all but one Democrat opposing him over his handling of thousands of foreclosures as head of OneWest Bank after the 2007-2009 housing collapse.
At a White House swearing-in ceremony, Trump said Mnuchin would be a "great champion" for U.S. citizens.
"He will fight for middle-class tax reductions, financial reforms that open up lending and create millions of new jobs, and fiercely defend the American tax dollar and your financial security," Trump said. "And he will also defend our manufacturing jobs from those who cheat and steal and rob us blind."
Lawmakers, lobbyists and business groups have been nervously waiting for Mnuchin to take office and fill in the many blanks on how he will pursue tax reform and handle delicate economic cooperation efforts with China, Mexico and other trading partners worried that Trump's "America First" strategy will upend decades-old trade rules and currency practices.
Mnuchin, 54, provided no details of his plans as he was sworn in.
"I am committed to using the full powers of this office to create more jobs, to combat terrorist activities and financing, and to make America great again," Mnuchin said.
Trump has pledged to roll back the stricter financial regulation under the Dodd-Frank reform law enacted after the financial crisis, pursue tougher trade policies on China and Mexico to reduce U.S. trade deficits, and reduce business tax rates.
"FORECLOSURE MACHINE"
Mnuchin, a second-generation Goldman Sachs banker who led the firm's mortgage bond trading but left the bank in 2002, came under fire from Democrats over his investor group's 2009 acquisition of another failed lender, IndyMac Bank, from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
The bank, rebranded as OneWest, subsequently foreclosed on more than 36,000 homeowners, drawing charges from housing advocates that it was a "foreclosure machine."
Mnuchin grew OneWest into Southern California's largest lender and sold it for $3.4 billion in 2015. He has also helped finance Hollywood blockbusters such as "Avatar," "American Sniper" and this past weekend's box office champion, "The Lego Batman Movie," which took in $55.6 million.
The Senate on Monday also unanimously confirmed David Shulkin as secretary of veterans affairs, putting the only holdover from the Obama administration in charge of the second largest federal agency. Shulkin had been in charge of the VA's sprawling health system for the past 18 months.
(Additional reporting by Emily Stephenson; Editing by Peter Cooney and Leslie Adler)
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