The grandson of immigrants from County Mayo is set to be Donald Trump’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget.
Congressman Mick Mulvaney from South Carolina’s 5th District is set to assume responsibility for the organization that sets the President’s budget, providing he is deemed to be qualified by members of the United States Senate who will approve or veto his appointment.
His nomination was welcomed by members of the Irish American community. Ciaran Staunton, Chairman of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform, was enthusiastic about the appointment, “Congressman Mulvaney has been a great friend of ours since he arrived on Capitol Hill in 2010 and we look forward to working with him.”
Mulvaney grew up in Charlotte, NC before moving to Indian Land, SC. He attended Georgetown University, from where he graduated with a degree in International Economics, Commerce and Finance, followed by a law degree from the University of North Carolina.
He served in the state legislature before being elected to Congress in the 2010 GOP wave. His victory margin was in the double digits, which surprised many, because the district had not sent a Republican to Washington since the 1880’s.
In Congress he was on the right-wing of his party and joined the Tea Party and Freedom caucuses of the GOP. Described as “spearheading opposition to the new budget bill” by The Hill in 2013, he insisted that the Bill was not conservative enough.
The news of his appointment has also come under scrutiny, with critics pointing to a Facebook post he issued in September arguing against Congress allocating more funds to Zika research and questioning "do we really need government funded research at all"?
He and his wife Pamela West married in 1998. They have triplets, Finn, James and Caroline.
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