Originally Published: 03 JUN 19 14:17 ET

Updated: 03 JUN 19 14:44 ET

Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large

(CNN) -- On Sunday's edition of "Meet the Press," Mick Mulvaney took a swing at defending the indefensible.

Asked about the decision by someone on Donald Trump's advance team to request the USS John S. McCain be removed from the President's sight during a recent trip to Japan, the White House chief of staff said this:

"An advance team is hundreds of people. The fact that some 23- or 24-year-old person on the advance team went to that site and said, 'Oh my goodness, there's the John McCain. We all know how the President feels about the former senator. Maybe that's not the best backdrop. Could somebody look into moving it?' That's not an unreasonable thing to ask."

Record scratch. Crickets. Etc.

To be clear on what Mulvaney is arguing: It is totally reasonable for someone on the White House staff to ask if a battleship could be moved because one of its namesakes is someone who, in life, the President didn't get along with. Sure! Fine!

Mulvaney's argument comes on the heels of a week of scrambling and story-changing by the White House about the ship and the President. After The Wall Street Journal first reported the requested move, Trump took to Twitter to say this: "I was not informed about anything having to do with the Navy Ship USS John S. McCain during my recent visit to Japan. Nevertheless, @FLOTUS and I loved being with our great Military Men and Women - what a spectacular job they do!"

But then, later in the week, Trump said this: "I was not a big fan of John McCain in any shape or form. Now, somebody did it because they thought I didn't like him, okay? And they were well-meaning."

Well meaning! How so? Do tell!

On Saturday, the Navy confirmed the whole story. "A request was made to the US Navy to minimize the visibility of USS John S. McCain, however, all ships remained in their normal configuration during the President's visit," said Rear Adm. Charlie Brown, Navy chief of information.

Which brings us back to Sunday, and Mulvaney's argument that asking to move a Navy ship because the President didn't like who it was named after was a totally normal thing to do.

That argument is, of course, patently ridiculous. The idea that the US military should be subject to the personal likes and dislikes of the commander-in-chief runs directly counter to the image of our troops both in the US and abroad. And that the military isn't a plaything for this President, or any president.

Mulvaney knows all of that. But he also knows that his boss watches the Sunday shows. And that his boss isn't a fan of staffers who don't defend every decision made by the White House. So he tries to make some sort of wacky argument that a junior-level advance staffer sucking up to his boss by asking for a battleship to be removed from the President's sight isn't at all weird.

As I noted last week when the news broke, there's no reason to believe that Trump himself even knew this request had been made. But that doesn't clear the President here. Because the reason a request like this gets made -- and the reason that Mulvaney feels the need to go on TV and attempt to rationalize it -- is because of the culture Trump has created around him. The expectation is blind loyalty to Trump and blind hatred of anyone who speaks out against Trump.

In that world, things like a White House staffer saying she didn't care about McCain's opposition to Trump CIA nominee Gina Haspel because "he's dying anyway" happen.

Things like some junior advance staffer asking to move a damn ship because its name happen.

This is the culture that Trump has always fostered -- whether in the business world, or now the political one. The low road is the one that is always taken because the low-road takers are rewarded by this President. And anyone who tries to take the high road is kindly asked to leave.

All of which explains Mulvaney's tortured defense of the request to move the USS John McCain. It's a job security thing. But just because you can understand why Mulvaney said what he did doesn't make it right.w33