Former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney criticized President Trump for his hiring choices as the administration seeks to stop the sale of a book containing explosive details about the president’s alleged conduct.
“If there was one criticism that I would level against the president is that he didn’t hire very well. He did not have experience at running government and didn’t know how to put together a team that could work well with him,” Mulvaney said in an interview with CNN on Friday.
“A lot of those folks are either folks in the military or actively involved in the military. And that’s just not — the military personality is just not the type that works well with Donald Trump, who’s a small businessman,” he said.
Trump has lashed out at John Bolton, his former national security adviser, whose book is set to be released Tuesday. Bolton alleges Trump sought help from China in winning reelection, cheered Chinese concentration camps, and gave personal favors to dictators he liked.
Trump has accused Bolton of being a disgruntled adviser and said he should have fired him long before Bolton left the White House in September. It’s a similar playbook Trump has used when former Cabinet members or other officials have spoken critically of him after leaving the administration.
“I’m not going to say they’re liars. I’m going to say they’re wrong,” Mulvaney said of ex-officials who have criticized Trump’s conduct.
Mulvaney, a former South Carolina congressman who also served as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and director of the Office of Management and Budget, is now the special U.S. envoy to Northern Ireland.
