President Donald Trump likely won't change his approach to campaigning or how he runs the White House, even after his diagnosis of COVID-19, former Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said Monday.
“You’re never going to keep this president locked in his basement," Mulvaney, now the special envoy to Ireland, said on CNBC's "Squawk Box." "That was never going to happen."
Trump could have been put "inside a bubble in the West Wing" and he could have been restricted to a point where nobody would have come into contact with him, but that wouldn't have worked, said Mulvaney, who also served under Trump as acting chief of staff.
"He likes interacting with people, so I think what the staff was trying to do is balance the demands of health and the demands of the president’s personality.”
Mulvaney said he also thinks Trump will continue to drive the message that there is more than health considerations when it comes to fighting COVID when it comes to shutdowns.
"Domestic abuse is up, divorce is up," said Mulvaney.
He added that he expects Trump to be back out on the campaign trail as soon as doctors say it's safe for him to do so because he "draws energy from being in front of people and being out."
Meanwhile, Mulvaney called for transparency when it comes to Trump's medical condition, after Trump's physician, Dr. Sean Conley, admitted to trying to deliver an upbeat message about the president.
"If the president is really sick, let's hear that," said Mulvaney. "I don't think (Americans) care about whether people are saying the same things or allies or enemies care that much, they care about the fact, is the president healthy, and they want to know the same thing. Shoot straight with the people."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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