Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin Receives Gift-Wrapped Horse Manure

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin received an early Christmas gift from “the American people,” which was delivered at his Los Angeles home Saturday evening.

The gift-wrapped package, which was discovered at 7:30 p.m. local time (10:30 p.m. EST) in a driveway near Mnuchin’s Bel Air home, was addressed to the treasury secretary, ABC-affiliated television station KABC News reported.

It triggered a bomb scare, and had police officials scrambling to respond to the situation. Members of the bomb squad arrived at the scene to inspect the package which was reportedly signed as being from “the American people."

However, the scare turned into a farce when it was discovered that the package contained horse manure, and the laughter was heard rippling through Twitter, where the treasury secretary is a regular roast candidate.

According to a report in ABC News, the scene was cleared after the contents of the package were revealed at 9:30 p.m. local time (12:30 a.m. EST).

Though cleared of being a bomb, it is not known yet if the "gift" would be presented to the treasury secretary.

What is known is that the prank received a big thumbs up from Twitter users. While some thought it was a funny idea to send horse manure as a present to Mnuchin, others applauded the sender and appreciated his bravado.

Check out some of the reactions here.

It is not clear whether Mnuchin or his wife, actress Louise Linton, was at home at the time of the incident.

According to website Realtor.com, the address where the package was delivered was recently purchased by the former Wall Street hedge fund manager for $12.6 million.

Though no specific reason was given by the authorities regarding the prank on Mnuchin, the treasury secretary has several times come under scrutiny in recent times for his actions.

He recently came under the scanner after he requested a government plane to fly him to his honeymoon in Scotland, France, and Italy.

His request sparked an inquiry by the Treasury Department's Office of Inspector General after which Mnuchin was unable to use the taxpayer-funded jet to fly to Europe for personal purposes, ABC News reported.

Before this, Mnuchin drew ire for unnecessarily using private government jets instead of commercial flights. Reports state that Mnuchin took a government jet to Kentucky in August. The whole incident was inquired into by the inspector general after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell shared photos of them watching the eclipse together. Mnuchin later clarified that the trip was not to view the eclipse but for government business.

Not only Mnuchin, his wife Linton had also sparked an inquiry into Trump administration officials for improper use of government-funded private planes after she shared a picture on Instagram in August returning from that same trip that Mnuchin took to Kentucky.

The scandal widened enough to lead to the resignation of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price in September over repeatedly chartering private planes for official travels.