President Trump told reporters he has a “very good relationship” with White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on Friday, a day after refusing to comment on his performance in an interview with The Washington Examiner. According to The Hill, Trump told reporters he was fond of his chief of staff before departing for a campaign rally in Mississippi. “I like Mick Mulvaney. I have a very good relationship with him,” he said. When asked in an interview with the Examiner whether he was “happy” with Mulvaney's job in the role, Trump sparked speculation by replying, “I don’t want to comment on it.”

The president also blamed federal investigations into his administration for high turnover in the West Wing. “I think if there was some bedlam, we have a right to it, and yet I think we were really cool under the circumstances. We had bad people after us … Everyone … angry Democrats,” Trump told the newspaper. “We had scumbags after us,” he said.