Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's visit to China last month may have been a trip in more than one sense of the word, according to a recent admission by the Biden administration official.
The 77-year-old cabinet head on Monday told CNN she consumed hallucinogenic mushrooms during her July trip to China, where she met with top officials as part of the Biden administration's effort to ease tensions.
Yellen claimed she was unaware that a dish she ate during a group dinner had hallucinogenic properties but "learned that later."
"So I went with this large group of people and the person who had arranged our dinner did the ordering," Yellen told CNN. "There was this delicious mushroom dish. I was not aware that these mushrooms had hallucinogenic properties."
The restaurant she visited is called Yi Zuo Yi Wang, or In and Out, a popular chain in China.
Yellen added that she "enjoyed" the mushrooms and did not feel any "ill" effect.
"I read that if the mushrooms are cooked properly, which I’m sure they were at this very good restaurant, that they have no impact," Yellen said. "But all of us enjoyed the mushrooms, the restaurant, and none of us felt any ill effects from having eaten them."
Also on the trip, Yellen "previewed" for the Chinese communist government the Biden administration's investment bans, revealed last week, that prohibit some U.S. investments in Chinese technologies, Bloomberg reported last month. "The goal, in part, was to make sure it doesn't catch off guard America's biggest geopolitical rival," according to the outlet. The warning came about a month before President Joe Biden signed the executive order barring some U.S. investments.