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
-
August 30 editorial cartoonsCartoons Saturday’s political cartoons include Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump's role reversal and King George III
-
5 bullseye cartoons about the reasons for mass shootingsCartoons Artists take on gun worship, a price paid, and more
-
Lisa Cook and Trump's battle for control the US FedTalking Point The president's attempts to fire one of the Federal Reserve's seven governor is represents 'a stunning escalation' of his attacks on the US central bank
-
RFK Jr. names new CDC head as staff revoltSpeed Read Kennedy installed his deputy, Jim O'Neill, as acting CDC director
-
DC prosecutors lose bid to indict sandwich throwerSpeed Read Prosecutors sought to charge Sean Dunn with assaulting a federal officer
-
White House fires new CDC head amid agency exodusSpeed Read CDC Director Susan Monarez was ousted after butting heads with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over vaccines
-
DOGE put Social Security data at risk, official saysSpeed Read DOGE workers made the personal information of hundreds of millions of Americans vulnerable to identity theft
-
Court rejects Trump suit against Maryland US judgesSpeed Read Judge Thomas Cullen, a Trump appointee, said the executive branch had no authority to sue the judges
-
Trump expands National Guard role in policingSpeed Read The president wants the Guard to take on a larger role in domestic law enforcement
-
Trump says he's firing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa CookSpeed Read The move is likely part of Trump's push to get the central bank to cut interest rates
-
Abrego released from jail, faces Uganda deportationSpeed Read The wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego García is expected to be detained at an ICE check-in and deported to Uganda
