Former chief of staff John Kelly has been gone for a little over one month and already new “acting” chief of staff Mick Mulvaney is reportedly hacking off the president.
Media reported Sunday that Mulvaney got quite the dressing-down from President Donald Trump, who blamed him for misshandling the shutdown talks.
In an awkward scene in front of Congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle, Mulvaney attempted to negotiate the dollars for the wall on a sum both parties could agree.
“If Dems weren’t OK with $5.7 [billion] and the president wasn’t OK with $1.3 [the Democratic offer] … he was trying to say we should find a middle ground,” one source told Axios.
Trump cut him off, the source said. “You just f*cked it all up, Mick.”
The source called it “kind of weird,” noting it seemed Trump was annoyed with Mulvaney.
“As a negotiator, Trump was resetting,” the source said. “Mick was not reading the room or the president.”
White House officials called it “exaggerated” and alleged the two men “joked” about it after the fact.