Mulvaney on Trump: ‘He didn’t hire very well’

Former acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said Friday that President Trump could’ve made better decisions when tapping people for top administration roles.

CNN’s Jim Sciutto asked Mulvaney, now special envoy for Northern Ireland, if former Trump administration officials who have lambasted the president for his performance, such as former Defense Secretary James Mattis, are lying in their assessment of Trump’s ability to be president.

“[Trump] 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 responded.

Mulvaney said that many of the former Trump officials who have criticized the president came from a military background and that the personalities of military personnel don’t mix well with Trump.

“[Trump] 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,” former acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney tells @jimsciutto about the President’s appointees. pic.twitter.com/eAtMJwRnFW

— New Day (@NewDay) June 19, 2020

Mulvaney was also probed about former national security adviser John Bolton’s new book, “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,” excerpts of which have painted Trump in a damning light.

Sciutto asked Mulvaney if he thought the contents of Bolton’s book were false or classified.

“They could easily be both,” Mulvaney answered. “You could have some things in there that are false, and certainly the excerpts I’ve read, I’ve not seen the whole book, I’m not sure why I didn’t receive a courtesy copy of it. I understand I’m in there several times over, but the excerpts that I’ve seen have been factually false, and it’s very likely or possible that the stuff we’ve not seen is classified.”