Donald Trump's former White House chief of staff said he believes they ran a "damn good government".
The Republican served as acting White House chief of staff between January 2019 and March 2020 - one of four men to serve in the role over Donald Trump's four years in office.
In the final year of the Trump administration, Mr Mulvaney served as a special envoy for Northern Ireland - although he resigned from the role over his opposition to Trump's handling of the January 6th Capitol riots.
The 54-year-old is now rejoining the private sector, and is currently in Ireland and set to take part at the Kennedy Summer School in New Ross.
Speaking on The Hard Shoulder, Mr Mulvaney said he feels at home in Ireland - suggesting “as an Irish-American, this place feels the same to me as Boston, Dallas or Miami".
Asked about his own political ideology, he observed: “I fashion myself centre right - I think most of the world probably perceives me as a hardcore right-wing nutjob. I’m more a fiscally conservative, pro-life libertarian.
"I’m a southern American, and we tend to be conservative in our own life and government life. We’re still very active in our churches.”
Trump administration
Mick Mulvaney's involvement with the Trump administration came about "mostly by accident", and began was he was recommended as a budget director by his friends Paul Ryan, Mike Pence and Reince Priebus.
He recalled: “When Donald Trump went looking for a budget director… they gave him my name. I’d never met the gentleman. I flew to New York - we interviewed, and talked mostly about golf in Clare. I tried to convince him, I think probably unsatisfactorily, that Lahinch is a better golf course than Doonbeg.
“We got on very well.
“He knew I knew my stuff as a budget director. I did that for three years before he made me chief of staff."
Mr Mulvaney had his disagreements with Mr Trump, and describes the infamous release of Access Hollywood tape as “probably one of the darkest days in Republican politics in the last 20 years”.
He said Donald Trump can be rough and vulgar - but also suggested there's "no pretence... what you see is what you get".
He said: “I enjoyed his company. His style was always different to mine.
“We still chat from time to time. I don’t think our families are going on vacation together, but we do get along fine.
"I still have my difficulties with him about how he handled the riots on January 6th… but he knows that. Even friends sometimes have things they just agree not to talk about, because they won’t agree. I don’t think he and I are ever going to agree on what happened on that day.”
"Damn good job"
Donald Trump has often been accused of not believing in many of his policies, simply taking particular policy positions simply to please other Republicans.
However, Mr Mulvaney believes the former president “really, really” believed in key policy goals such as tax reform and withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan.
He also suggested the former president left office "far more pro-life than he did when he went into it."
He believes Mr Trump is probably a “centre-right Republican politician that can cross line with Democrats on some things, and rub evangelicals the wrong way on others".
Many, many reports and books about the Trump years have painted the picture of a chaotic administration, with frequent political crises and staff turnover.
Mr Mulvaney, however, believes they did a "damn good job" at running the US government.
He said the Trump White House did have its issues, although suggested that will always appear to be the case when every single thing they did ended up in newspaper reports.
He observed: “I can probably guarantee you there was less chaos in the Trump White House than there is in the Biden White House right now.
“What you’re seeing right now in Afghanistan happens because of disorganisation and chaos in a White House.
“You can complain about Donald Trump’s personality all you want, and I may join you on some of those things. You can dislike his policies, as many Democrats do. But we ran a damn good government. Things worked.”
