December 18, 2025 • 9 mins
The former Chief of Staff for Donald Trump joins Bo and Beth to share his thoughts on President Trump's address to the Nation last night.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
From one O seven point nine FM WBT Charlotte's FM
News Talk. This is Good Morning BT with Poe Thompson
at BEV troutbit.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Eight thirty seven on News Talk one O seven point
nine WBT, Charlotte's FM News Talk. I have it on
good authority. He's going to be in studio with us
on Monday, but he is on the line right now.
Because it's not just every night that the President does
a nine o'clock address from the White House, and President
(00:36):
Trump did that last night. Here is a bit of that.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
One year ago, our country was dead. We were absolutely dead.
Our country is ready to fail, totally failed now with
the hottest country anywhere in the world. And that's said
by every single leader that I've spoken to over the
last five months. Next year, you will also see the
results of the largest tax cuts in American history that
(01:03):
were really accomplished through our great, big, beautiful bill, perhaps
the most sweeping legislation ever passed in Congress. We wrapped
twelve different bills up into one beautiful bill that includes
no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no
tax on Social Security for our great seniors. Under these cuts,
(01:26):
many families will be saving between eleven thousand and twenty
thousand dollars a year, and next spring is projected to
be the largest tax refund season of all time because
of tariffs. Along with the just passed one Big Beautiful bill. Tonight,
I am also proud to announce that more than one thousand,
(01:48):
four hundred and fifty thousand, think of this, one million,
four hundred and fifty thousand military service members will receive
a special we call Warrior divs. It in before Christmas,
so Warriort Dividend.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
In honor of.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Our nations founding in seventeen seventy six, we are sending
every soldier one thousand and seven hundred and seventy six dollars.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
That's President Trump last night from the White House, and
on the WBT hotline right now is former White House
Chief of Staff. You see him on News Nation, former
budget director, former South Carolina congressman calling in for some
quick reaction this morning. Mick mulvaney. Happy holidays to you,
Very Christmas, y'all. So what did you think of this
last night?
Speaker 4 (02:34):
I didn't like it. I didn't like it at all.
I didn't like the tone, I didn't like the tenor.
I didn't like the pace, and I really didn't like
the topic. I was. We were trying to figure out
on News Nation last night, which I do when I'm
up here in DC, what the seach is going to
be about. We were guessing, and we said, well, it's
going to be It's gonna be a you know, an address,
a national address. This is a big deal. And then
we heard that Marco Rubio was in the building with Okay,
(02:55):
he's going to announce some serious policies on Venezuela and
explain to the country why we're going to or Venezuela,
something serious like that. And it wasn't this was for
your Seinfeld fans out there. This was the festivus airing
of the grievances, and it was done at such a
pace that I'm sitting here watching with a group of people,
(03:16):
all Republicans, and we're looking at the television going, why
is it yelling at us? But what is going on?
It's almost like you tried to take an entire hour's
worth of speech and press it into fifteen minutes. So
I don't think it was very successful at all. Recognizing
especially that when you do this and you do these
national addresses, you don't get to do them very often
because the TV doesn't want to give you the time
(03:36):
because they don't get paid for it. That you're going
to get a new audience. And I'm not sure that
people who don't follow politics just happened to be watching
television last night were very impressed. So now I was
not pleased with the speech last night.
Speaker 5 (03:49):
Well, I think it begs the question why why did
they decide that?
Speaker 4 (03:53):
I know that I got. I mean that's easy now
that I saw the speech is last night on TV.
I said, look, if it's in Venezuela, that this thisiness,
if it's just the greatest hits, if it's a rally
type of speech, then the reason he did that is
that he sees his poll numbers. He doesn't like it,
nobody would, and says, you know what, none of these
people who work for me have got the ability to
(04:14):
sell this. I am the greatest salesman of my product,
and he is, by the way, he absolutely is. I
mean he's proven that throughout his entire career. I'll fix it.
If I just get a chance to talk to people directly,
I can fix it. So give me a national address.
I'll tell everybody what a great job we've done. I'll
tell you how great the country is doing, and that
will solve this problem of my low approve rings. Once
(04:35):
I sell this product, people will buy it. And that's
what this was last night, and I don't think it
went over very well.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
So you were chief of staff for President Trump during
the first administration. You mentioned the polling numbers. The other
question I have is the big story leading into this
the last couple of days, and that's this Vanity Fair
interview that Susie Wiles did. And Okay, Susie Wiles is
now in the same position that you were for a while,
le What did you make of of this, this this
(05:03):
story and did did that have anything to do with
him wanting to take the stage last night and sort
of make the case on his own Now, I.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
Really don't think so. I think I think the the
interview was much ado about nothing, and then we get
a chance to talk about more on Monday when I'm
in the studio at length. But I really don't think
it's that big of a deal. I read both the
both the long versions of the interview in Vanity Vanity Fair,
and they're there. It's actually some of it's quite good.
There are a couple of places where she's caused some difficulties.
(05:33):
It's not where all the media attention is going, you know,
they say, oh my goodness, she she said that Trump
has has an alcoholics personality. He says that about himself
in private, So that's not that's not that's not news, right,
and it's certainly not earth shattering. When she said that JD.
Vance was a conspiracy theorist. He says that about himself,
So that's that that A lot of that is is
(05:53):
tongue in chic. It's it's not it's not. It's not her,
you know, trying to drive a wedge between anybody in
the build. There's a couple of places that will cause difficulties,
especially where Susie said that the president is going on
revenge tours, you know, going after his political enemies and
so forth, James Comy, for example, because that will become
(06:14):
relevant now to those people's defense in court, because there
is a motion to dismiss criminal actions for vindictive prosecution.
And if they've just had the chief of staff say, yeah,
the President's going after these people because they're his political enemies,
that will become a big issue in those cases. But again,
out of everything anbody's talk about, I don't think that
gets the attention that does. I don't think it's that
a good deal is certainly not going to cost her
(06:35):
her job. All the reports I get is that she's
doing great, everybody likes her, She's run a tight ship,
and she's there as long as she wants to stay.
Speaker 5 (06:42):
So the journalists who wrote the article for Vanity Fair's
name's Chris Whipple. When you were chief of staff, would
you have given a journalist, no matter from what publication,
would you have given someone as much access as she
gave him? Because he has hours and hours and hours
of recorded conversations that were on the record.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Yeah, he's I think I think they had did eleven
sit down recorded interviews, which is just preposterous. The only
thing that makes any sense to me about why that
would happen best I've tried to run through my head,
why would you do this in the first place? Because No,
I never talked to Chris Whipple. We did reach out
to him for a couple of times, but he never
he never responded to any of this. I don't think he
talked to any of the Trump first term chief of staff.
(07:22):
But the only thing, the only reasons I think she
would do this is number one, that arrogance, and she
is not an arrogant person. Naivete and she is not
a naive person. So the only reason I keep coming
back to again and again is that Trump told her
to do it. That she that Whipple reached out to
somebody in the White Now said I'd like to talk
to Susie Wiles. She's the first. He writes a lot
(07:43):
about chiefs of staff. It's his famous book is called
Gatekeepers about chiefs of Staff. I like to talk to
Susie Whyles, she's the first woman, and I want to,
you know, add a chapter of my book or whatever.
And that somebody mentioned that to the president of the
President's reactually, oh, she should do that. She should absolutely
do that. Keep in mind, one of Trump's fundamental precepts
is that the reason he gets bad press is that
he doesn't give enough access. He's always believed that if
(08:05):
you give the media access, they will write nice stuff
about you. He really believes that. His actual experience in
the White House notwithstanding, So my guess is, and it's
just a guess that somehow he found out about and
told her to do it, and you know the results
is are were eleven sit down interviews. So stunning to
me that she did that, But again it's I can
I can imagine a world where it makes sense in
(08:27):
the Trump White House.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Okay, So, like you said, you'll be here on Monday
in person and we'll get more into the details of
some of what we're talking about here. But the bottom
line is the speech last night did not have a
word declaration. Tucker Carlson was out in front of it
saying that hey, he's going to talk about a war
is coming. That didn't come to fruition, and some other
people had suggested the same thing. So in the end,
(08:48):
you looked at that last night as basically, I just
want to go out and tell the story myself because
I'm the best person to do that, and it kind
of fell flat for you.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
Yeah, I did. I did not think it was a
good speech. I did not think it was a good
use of his time, and I certainly do not think
it's going to help them solve the issue they got
right now of his approval ratings going into twenty twenty
six in the midterm election.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
All Right, we'll talk to you on Monday. Look forward
to seeing you and thanks a lot for the quick
phone call this morning.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
Have great weekend, J'allsea money you too.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
That's Mick mulvaney, former White House Chief of Staff,
From one O seven point nine FM WBT Charlotte's FM
News Talk. This is Good Morning BT with Poe Thompson
at BEV troutbit.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Eight thirty seven on News Talk one O seven point
nine WBT, Charlotte's FM News Talk. I have it on
good authority. He's going to be in studio with us
on Monday, but he is on the line right now.
Because it's not just every night that the President does
a nine o'clock address from the White House, and President
(00:36):
Trump did that last night. Here is a bit of that.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
One year ago, our country was dead. We were absolutely dead.
Our country is ready to fail, totally failed now with
the hottest country anywhere in the world. And that's said
by every single leader that I've spoken to over the
last five months. Next year, you will also see the
results of the largest tax cuts in American history that
(01:03):
were really accomplished through our great, big, beautiful bill, perhaps
the most sweeping legislation ever passed in Congress. We wrapped
twelve different bills up into one beautiful bill that includes
no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no
tax on Social Security for our great seniors. Under these cuts,
(01:26):
many families will be saving between eleven thousand and twenty
thousand dollars a year, and next spring is projected to
be the largest tax refund season of all time because
of tariffs. Along with the just passed one Big Beautiful bill. Tonight,
I am also proud to announce that more than one thousand,
(01:48):
four hundred and fifty thousand, think of this, one million,
four hundred and fifty thousand military service members will receive
a special we call Warrior divs. It in before Christmas,
so Warriort Dividend.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
In honor of.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Our nations founding in seventeen seventy six, we are sending
every soldier one thousand and seven hundred and seventy six dollars.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
That's President Trump last night from the White House, and
on the WBT hotline right now is former White House
Chief of Staff. You see him on News Nation, former
budget director, former South Carolina congressman calling in for some
quick reaction this morning. Mick mulvaney. Happy holidays to you,
Very Christmas, y'all. So what did you think of this
last night?
Speaker 4 (02:34):
I didn't like it. I didn't like it at all.
I didn't like the tone, I didn't like the tenor.
I didn't like the pace, and I really didn't like
the topic. I was. We were trying to figure out
on News Nation last night, which I do when I'm
up here in DC, what the seach is going to
be about. We were guessing, and we said, well, it's
going to be It's gonna be a you know, an address,
a national address. This is a big deal. And then
we heard that Marco Rubio was in the building with Okay,
(02:55):
he's going to announce some serious policies on Venezuela and
explain to the country why we're going to or Venezuela,
something serious like that. And it wasn't this was for
your Seinfeld fans out there. This was the festivus airing
of the grievances, and it was done at such a
pace that I'm sitting here watching with a group of people,
(03:16):
all Republicans, and we're looking at the television going, why
is it yelling at us? But what is going on?
It's almost like you tried to take an entire hour's
worth of speech and press it into fifteen minutes. So
I don't think it was very successful at all. Recognizing
especially that when you do this and you do these
national addresses, you don't get to do them very often
because the TV doesn't want to give you the time
(03:36):
because they don't get paid for it. That you're going
to get a new audience. And I'm not sure that
people who don't follow politics just happened to be watching
television last night were very impressed. So now I was
not pleased with the speech last night.
Speaker 5 (03:49):
Well, I think it begs the question why why did
they decide that?
Speaker 4 (03:53):
I know that I got. I mean that's easy now
that I saw the speech is last night on TV.
I said, look, if it's in Venezuela, that this thisiness,
if it's just the greatest hits, if it's a rally
type of speech, then the reason he did that is
that he sees his poll numbers. He doesn't like it,
nobody would, and says, you know what, none of these
people who work for me have got the ability to
(04:14):
sell this. I am the greatest salesman of my product,
and he is, by the way, he absolutely is. I
mean he's proven that throughout his entire career. I'll fix it.
If I just get a chance to talk to people directly,
I can fix it. So give me a national address.
I'll tell everybody what a great job we've done. I'll
tell you how great the country is doing, and that
will solve this problem of my low approve rings. Once
(04:35):
I sell this product, people will buy it. And that's
what this was last night, and I don't think it
went over very well.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
So you were chief of staff for President Trump during
the first administration. You mentioned the polling numbers. The other
question I have is the big story leading into this
the last couple of days, and that's this Vanity Fair
interview that Susie Wiles did. And Okay, Susie Wiles is
now in the same position that you were for a while,
le What did you make of of this, this this
(05:03):
story and did did that have anything to do with
him wanting to take the stage last night and sort
of make the case on his own Now, I.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
Really don't think so. I think I think the the
interview was much ado about nothing, and then we get
a chance to talk about more on Monday when I'm
in the studio at length. But I really don't think
it's that big of a deal. I read both the
both the long versions of the interview in Vanity Vanity Fair,
and they're there. It's actually some of it's quite good.
There are a couple of places where she's caused some difficulties.
(05:33):
It's not where all the media attention is going, you know,
they say, oh my goodness, she she said that Trump
has has an alcoholics personality. He says that about himself
in private, So that's not that's not that's not news, right,
and it's certainly not earth shattering. When she said that JD.
Vance was a conspiracy theorist. He says that about himself,
So that's that that A lot of that is is
(05:53):
tongue in chic. It's it's not it's not. It's not her,
you know, trying to drive a wedge between anybody in
the build. There's a couple of places that will cause difficulties,
especially where Susie said that the president is going on
revenge tours, you know, going after his political enemies and
so forth, James Comy, for example, because that will become
(06:14):
relevant now to those people's defense in court, because there
is a motion to dismiss criminal actions for vindictive prosecution.
And if they've just had the chief of staff say, yeah,
the President's going after these people because they're his political enemies,
that will become a big issue in those cases. But again,
out of everything anbody's talk about, I don't think that
gets the attention that does. I don't think it's that
a good deal is certainly not going to cost her
(06:35):
her job. All the reports I get is that she's
doing great, everybody likes her, She's run a tight ship,
and she's there as long as she wants to stay.
Speaker 5 (06:42):
So the journalists who wrote the article for Vanity Fair's
name's Chris Whipple. When you were chief of staff, would
you have given a journalist, no matter from what publication,
would you have given someone as much access as she
gave him? Because he has hours and hours and hours
of recorded conversations that were on the record.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Yeah, he's I think I think they had did eleven
sit down recorded interviews, which is just preposterous. The only
thing that makes any sense to me about why that
would happen best I've tried to run through my head,
why would you do this in the first place? Because No,
I never talked to Chris Whipple. We did reach out
to him for a couple of times, but he never
he never responded to any of this. I don't think he
talked to any of the Trump first term chief of staff.
(07:22):
But the only thing, the only reasons I think she
would do this is number one, that arrogance, and she
is not an arrogant person. Naivete and she is not
a naive person. So the only reason I keep coming
back to again and again is that Trump told her
to do it. That she that Whipple reached out to
somebody in the White Now said I'd like to talk
to Susie Wiles. She's the first. He writes a lot
(07:43):
about chiefs of staff. It's his famous book is called
Gatekeepers about chiefs of Staff. I like to talk to
Susie Whyles, she's the first woman, and I want to,
you know, add a chapter of my book or whatever.
And that somebody mentioned that to the president of the
President's reactually, oh, she should do that. She should absolutely
do that. Keep in mind, one of Trump's fundamental precepts
is that the reason he gets bad press is that
he doesn't give enough access. He's always believed that if
(08:05):
you give the media access, they will write nice stuff
about you. He really believes that. His actual experience in
the White House notwithstanding, So my guess is, and it's
just a guess that somehow he found out about and
told her to do it, and you know the results
is are were eleven sit down interviews. So stunning to
me that she did that, But again it's I can
I can imagine a world where it makes sense in
(08:27):
the Trump White House.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Okay, So, like you said, you'll be here on Monday
in person and we'll get more into the details of
some of what we're talking about here. But the bottom
line is the speech last night did not have a
word declaration. Tucker Carlson was out in front of it
saying that hey, he's going to talk about a war
is coming. That didn't come to fruition, and some other
people had suggested the same thing. So in the end,
(08:48):
you looked at that last night as basically, I just
want to go out and tell the story myself because
I'm the best person to do that, and it kind
of fell flat for you.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
Yeah, I did. I did not think it was a
good speech. I did not think it was a good
use of his time, and I certainly do not think
it's going to help them solve the issue they got
right now of his approval ratings going into twenty twenty
six in the midterm election.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
All Right, we'll talk to you on Monday. Look forward
to seeing you and thanks a lot for the quick
phone call this morning.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
Have great weekend, J'allsea money you too.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
That's Mick mulvaney, former White House Chief of Staff,
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