Mulvaney: Trump Was 'Honestly Surprised'

Mick Mulvaney hit the small screen Sunday and talked about a pair of recent issues—including President Trump's about-face on hosting next year's G-7 conference at Trump National Doral Miami resort, Politico reports. "The president isn't one for holding back his feelings and his emotions about something," the acting White House chief of staff told Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday. "He was honestly surprised by the level of pushback." Mulvaney conceded that Trump's initial G-7 plan "looked lousy," but said Trump "still considers himself to be in the hospitality business" and wanted to "put on the absolute best show, the best visit he possibly could" for visiting leaders.

Mulvaney also talked about the "quid pro quo"—an issue that arose this week when he said Trump had withheld military aid in return for Ukraine conducting an investigation that could benefit Trump politically. "Can I say that people took that the wrong way? Absolutely," said Mulvaney, per the Hill. "But I never said there was a quid pro quo because there isn't." He then defended Trump's interest in an alleged Ukrainian server containing Hillary Clinton's emails, which many consider a debunked conspiracy theory: "No. 1, it is legitimate for the president to want to know what's going on with the ongoing investigation into the server," he said, per Fox News. "...No. 2, it's legitimate to tie the aid to corruption, it's legitimate to tie the aid to foreign aid from other countries." (More President Trump stories.)