A newly released video shows US President Donald Trump's current budget director and soon-to-be Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney calling him “a terrible human being” during a 2016 campaign debate.
The video was released Saturday by left-leaning American news and opinion website The Daily Beast, prompting broad speculations that one of Mulvaney’s first task as White House chief of staff would likely be to explain why he held such very negative opinion of Trump and how he justifies serving him at such intimately high levels.
“Yes, I'm supporting Donald Trump,” the video shows Mulvaney saying while debating a Democratic rival during his successful reelection as South Carolina’s Republican representative to the US Congress.
“I'm doing so as enthusiastically as I can, given the fact that I think he's a terrible human being, but the choice on the other side is just as bad,” he added.
Moreover, Mulvaney was also quoted in a local daily as describing Trump and his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton as amongst the “most flawed human beings” running for US presidency.
“We have perhaps two of the most flawed human beings running for president in the history of the country,” he said then as quoted by South Carolina’s The Herald newspaper, referring to Trump and Clinton.
Following Trump’s unexpected election win, Mulvaney became a key part of his administration, at one point serving as both the White House budget director and head of the Consumer Protection Bureau.
A staunch right-winger, the former congressman outlined deep federal spending cuts that Congress balked at, as well as a weakening of consumer protection rules.
The controversial US president named Mulvaney on Friday as his acting chief of staff at the end of the year, when his current Chief of Staff John Kelly is due to leave the administration.
“Mick has done an outstanding job while in the administration,” Trump wrote in a Friday tweet.
“I look forward to working with him in this new capacity as we continue to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” he added in a follow-up tweet.
The development came as Trump’s hunt for a new chief of staff has not gone very smoothly, often being defined by people declining the high-profile position, rather than those queuing up to fill it.
Trump’s first choice was Nick Ayers, Vice-President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, who bowed out after being unable to agree on how long he would serve in the post. Moreover, former New Jersey Republican governor Chris Christie also ruled himself out of contention.