Mulvaney Introduces Himself as a ‘Right-Wing Nutjob’

White House budget director Mick Mulvaney admits to Politico that no one in this administration “is more of a right-wing conservative than I am.”

Mulvaney has an amusing way of announcing his extremism. His first words to Trump’s top economic adviser, Gary Cohn, were: “Hi, I’m a right-wing nutjob!” (Cohn’s deadpan reply: “Hi, I’m Gary.”) At a meeting with budget analysts, Mulvaney wryly described himself as a crazy reactionary. But he bristles a bit at stereotypes of Southern conservatives as knuckle-dragging backwoods Neanderthals, because he’s not that kind of reactionary. He comes off more like a 50-year-old Rotary Club suburbanite with triplets, a standing desk, and an eight handicap, which he is. He studied abroad in Madrid. He drives a Miata.