Former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney weighed in on President-elect Trump’s transition team and potential Cabinet Thursday, emphasizing the need for “loyal” members in order to ensure a “successful” term.
“Loyalty is not the blind sort of, ‘Oh, I’ll do anything for Donald Trump.’ It’s — are your interests aligned with the president and his agenda. Is your first loyalty to Donald Trump or do you have divided loyalty someplace?” Mulvaney told “The Hill” host Blake Burman on NewsNation.
“By the way, this should come as a shock to no one, Barack Obama, picked loyalists for his cabinet,” he added. “You have to have a loyal Cabinet because they are your most trusted advisers.”
After Trump was declared the the winner in the 2024 White House race over Vice President Harris, he and his allies began focusing on who would serve in key administrative roles. The former president announced his leadership team in August, anchored by former Small Business Administration administrator Linda McMahon and businessman Howard Lutnick. His vice president, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), is serving as an honorary chair along with his sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.
Trump has already named Susie Wiles to be chief of staff. The widely respected Florida operative anchored the president-elect’s campaign for the past two years and will be the first woman ever to serve in that role.
During a 3-hour interview with podcaster Joe Rogan last month, Trump said the “biggest mistake” of his presidency was picking “bad, disloyal people” to join his administration. His remarks came after former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Mark Milley and another former White House chief of staff, John Kelly, painted him as a “fascist” and claimed he praised former Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s generals for their loyalty.
In his first term, the president-elect went through four chiefs of staff — Reince Priebus, Kelly, Mulvaney and former Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.). Former President Obama, as Mulvaney noted, had just as many. President Biden has only had two.
Mulvaney described the position as “fun,” but “not easy.” He also praised the appointment of Wiles, predicting that she would excel in the role.
“I’ve heard nothing but really good things about Susie. I don’t know her myself. I know a lot of folks in the campaign, a lot of folks in the transition,” Mulvaney told Burman. “And without exception, they think she’d be really well suited to this.”
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