Scots actress Louise Linton says marrying Trump aide Steven Mnuchin put a target on her

The Scots wife of Donald Trump’s treasury secretary has insisted she is a nice person despite being labelled Cruella de Vil after a series of gaffes.

Louise Linton, who is married to Steven Mnuchin, attracted criticism for social media posts celebrating the couple’s millionaire lifestyle.

But the actress, who was educated at Fettes College, in Edinburgh, has said she has learned from her mistakes, blaming much of the criticism on her close ties to the Trump administration.

She said: “I think I’m nice. I work really hard to be loving and encouraging to everyone in my life, and I care passionately about all the causes I support.”

Linton, 40, spent her teenage years living at Melville Castle on the outskirts of the capital but moved to California to attend university, and met Mnuchin, her second husband, in 2013.

But a social media post detailing her designer outfit on a presidential jet to Ford Knox in 2017 as $1.5 trillion in tax cuts were being pushed through led to a ferocious backlash, as did photographs of her and her husband with piles of the first bank notes bearing his signature.

Linton, whose self-produced movie Me, You, Madness, in which she also stars, has endured scathing reviews, told The Times: “You make mistakes, you learn from them.”

She added: “I’ve faced a lot of criticism, partly, by being so closely tied to such a controversial administration. It put a target on my back.”