White House budget director Mick Mulvaney talked taxes and President Trump's tweets about Puerto Rico hurricane relief efforts in an interview Sunday with CNN's Jake Tapper on State of the Union.
Tapper began the conversation by asking Mulvaney to explain Trump's Saturday Twitter declaration that San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz "and others in Puerto Rico" want "everything to be done for them." "Who is 'they,' and what is the 'everything' they want done for them?" Tapper questioned.
"I think what the president's trying to get at is that folks think this is going to be easy," Mulvaney replied, casting Trump's comments as an exercise in managing expectations. "They saw what happened in Texas; they saw what happened in Florida; and they thought, 'Oh, this is easy to do' — and it's not," Mulvaney continued. "This was always going to be harder, we knew that," because Puerto Rico was hit by two successive hurricanes (Irma and Maria) and it is less accessible than continental areas.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Mulvaney also suggested Cruz is not adequately participating in relief efforts herself, and that the media is not fairly depicting federal relief efforts in Puerto Rico.
Turning to the subject of Trump's tax plan, Mulvaney argued that critics have jumped the gun because the bill is not fully written. "I've seen the criticisms," he said. "All I can tell you is that no one can make real, detailed analysis of the plan yet because it's not finished." Some details of the plan central to calculating its impact are not available, Mulvaney said, because they do not exist. For Trump, he added, lowering middle-class and corporate tax rates are the two big priorities.
Watch the full interview below. Bonnie Kristian
-
5 drawn-out cartoons about the ongoing government shutdownCartoon Artists take on government employee cosplay, which side blinks first, and more
-
Political cartoons for November 1Cartoons Saturday's political cartoons include insurance premiums, early voting in NYC, and more
-
Salted caramel and chocolate tart recipeThe Week Recommends Delicious dessert can be made with any biscuits you fancy
-
Senate votes to kill Trump’s Brazil tariffSpeed Read Five Senate Republicans joined the Democrats in rebuking Trump’s import tax
-
Border Patrol gets scrutiny in court, gains power in ICESpeed Read Half of the new ICE directors are reportedly from DHS’s more aggressive Customs and Border Protection branch
-
Shutdown stalemate nears key pain pointsSpeed Read A federal employee union called for the Democrats to to stand down four weeks into the government standoff
-
Trump vows new tariffs on Canada over Reagan adspeed read The ad that offended the president has Ronald Reagan explaining why import taxes hurt the economy
-
NY attorney general asks public for ICE raid footageSpeed Read Rep. Dan Goldman claims ICE wrongly detained four US citizens in the Canal Street raid and held them for a whole day without charges
-
Trump’s huge ballroom to replace razed East WingSpeed Read The White House’s east wing is being torn down amid ballroom construction
-
Trump expands boat strikes to Pacific, killing 5 moreSpeed Read The US military destroyed two more alleged drug smuggling boats in international waters
-
Trump demands millions from his administrationSpeed Read The president has requested $230 million in compensation from the Justice Department for previous federal investigations
