Instagram gig backfires for Auburn alum, Trump’s current OPM chief of communications
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The influencer/government employee at the center of the most recent DOGE controversy hails from Auburn, Alabama, and is an Auburn University graduate.
McLaurine Pinover is the recently-appointed Chief of Communications for the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and is currently in hot water for using her government office to promote her side gig: shilling clothes on Instagram.
The OPM made headlines as the long arm of the Department of Government Efficiency, headed by Elon Musk since Trump appointed Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy after the election.
Auburn native and OPM Chief of Communications turns Instagram influencer
The account, which has since been taken down, features at least a dozen “outfit of the day” (OOTD) posts filmed inside Pinover’s government office and for the benefit of her 800 followers. She used “affiliate links,” which allow creators to earn commissions by receiving a percentage of the sale price when someone makes a purchase. The Auburn grad’s account was linked to ShopMy, which provided the links to the clothes featured in the videos.
Bad timing for an OOTD account
The posts are at minimum tone deaf and at worst in violation of “rules restricting the use of government property for personal benefit because,” reports CNN. On the very day Pinover laid off 20 employees in her department, she posted a video of her outfit with the caption, “moment for mixed patterns.” The week all federal employees received that infamous email, she captioned one video “the business woman’s special.”
In one of the now-deleted posts, “Pinover posted a video blowing a kiss to the camera with the caption ‘work look’ and the hashtag #dcinfluencer,” on the same day her office sent a memo urging officials to “identify barriers they faced in their work to ‘swiftly terminate poor performing employees.’”
Her followers could purchase the purple skirt she wore to the office that day for $475 if they clicked on the affiliated link.
CNN spoke to a former OPM employee, who told them, “‘I saw it, and I was like, ‘Are you kidding me, that’s my office.’” The employee asked to remain anonymous in fear of retaliation, but went on to say, “She’s the spokesperson for the agency that is advocating for the firing based on performance and efficiency of the rest of the government workforce, and she’s using government property as a backdrop for her videos.”
Violation of the federal guidelines?
Chief counsel for the watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington claims the Alabama native’s posts “violate rules prohibiting the use of government resources for private gain.” However, other ethics experts say she’s in the clear because she didn’t mention her OPM position and didn’t appear to trade on it for clout.
If Pinover is found in violation of federal regulations, however, Federal Employment Attorneys posit she could face penalties ranging from minor disciplinary actions to revocation of security clearance to fines and imprisonment.
If her account and posts were to be found too political in nature and were made while on duty or using government resources, she could face repercussions under the Hatch Act, which ensures a nonpartisan civil service workforce.
What do you make of what she did? Is it just in poor taste or did she violate the rules? Email me at srose@ledger-enquirer.com or find me on Instagram.
This story was originally published March 12, 2025 at 1:51 PM.
