President Trump’s chief of staff Mick Mulvaney rejected the notion that the president only likes to surround himself with people who agree with him.
“I disagree with the president every single day,” Mulvaney said. “You just don’t hear about it — that’s not my job.”
“The president looks for people who disagree with him and disagree with each other,” he said, adding that Trump “will sit back and watch” as his aides “go at it.”
He said the assessment that Trump lives in an echo chamber is fueled by aides declining to express their conflicting views in public.
“It’s our job to agree with the president all the time publicly,” he said. “Disagree with him privately.”
Mulvaney made the comments at a private gathering in England on Wednesday. Audio of the comments was provided to the New York Times.
He pointed to Trump’s top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, who has clashed with the president over tariffs.
Kudlow rose in prominence as “being one of the foremost free traders in the country,” Mulvaney said. “He’s now on TV regularly defending our tariff positions.”
