War in West Wing goes public
UNITED STATES: Infighting in the West Wing has spilled into public view, with US President Donald Trump’s new public relations supremo going to war with the White House chief of staff on live television.
Anthony Scaramucci, a former hedge fund entrepreneur who was appointed as White House communications director last week, called CNN yesterday to suggest that the Trump administration was mired in ‘‘paranoia and backstabbing’’.
Leaks to the media had reached intolerable levels, he said, before issuing a remarkable challenge to Reince Priebus, the chief of staff. ‘‘If Reince wants to explain he’s not a leaker, let him do that.’’
He added: ‘‘As you know from the Italian expression, the fish stinks from the head down. But I can tell you two fish that don’t stink, OK, and that’s me and the president.
‘‘Some brothers are like Cain and Abel. Other brothers can fight with each other and get along. I don’t know if this is repairable or not. That will be up to the president.’’
The biblical reference may not bode well for the relationship between the two men. In the book of Genesis, Cain murders Abel
Hours before his impromptu TV interview, Scaramucci had seemed to indicate on Twitter that he wanted the FBI to investigate Priebus for leaking.
He was asked by The Washington Post whether Trump had authorised him to go on TV to talk about leaks and Priebus. ‘‘He did, yes,’’ Scaramucci replied.
The comments capped a turbulent week - even by recent standards - during which Trump has made a series of attacks on Jeff Sessions, his attorney-general.
On Thursday, the president took the Pentagon by surprise by abruptly announcing a ban on transgender troops serving in the US military, and it was reported that the Joint Chiefs of Staff had not known that the ban was coming. The decision drew criticism from both sides in Congress.
On Capitol Hill, Trump’s Republican Party is struggling to make headway in its seven-year quest to reform Obamacare. Republicans in the Senate failed to pass a measure that would have repealed large parts of the Affordable Healthcare Act without providing a replacement. Trump has urged them to push forward but has given little clear guidance on his preferences.
That there was bad blood between Scaramucci and Priebus was no secret, after Priebus stopped Scaramucci being offered a White House job for months. Even so, the media feud still left Washington agog.
In a more conventional administration, Scaramucci, known as ‘‘the Mooch’’, would report to Priebus. Last week, however, the White House made it clear that he would report directly to Trump, chipping away at Priebus’s standing.
Scaramucci had vented on Twitter overnight after government forms detailing his income were relayed to the media, quoting the Twitter address ‘‘@Reince45’’ used by Priebus.
‘‘In light of the leak of my financial disclosure info which is a felony. I will be contacting @FBI and the @TheJusticeDept #swamp @Reince45,’’ he wrote.
He later deleted the tweet, and denied that it had been an attack on Priebus. Yesterday, however, Scaramucci called in to CNN and all but blamed Priebus for leaking to the media.
‘‘When I put out a tweet and I put Reince’s name in a tweet, they’re all making the assumption that it’s him, because journalists know who the leakers are. So if Reince wants to explain he’s not a leaker, let him do that,’’ he said.
‘‘The president and I would like to tell everybody we have a very, very good idea of who the leakers are, who the senior leakers are in the White House.’’
The remarks appear to be part of a broader turf battle that has raged since Trump’s inauguration.
Priebus hails from the establishment wing of the Republican Party. After the 2012 election defeat of Mitt Romney, he called for the party to reach out to minorities. He has long been viewed with suspicion by the nationalist ‘‘America First’’ wing of Trump’s power base, led by Steve Bannon, the chief White House strategist.
Over the past six months Bannon and Priebus have become unlikely allies, largely because of the shared challenge they have faced from the president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her husband, Jared Kushner, and Gary Cohn, the president’s chief economic adviser.
Scaramucci was brought into the White House last week despite the protests of Priebus, who sees him as a rival.
Scaramucci’s financial disclosure forms showed that he earned US$4.9 million from his stake in Sky Bridge Capital, a hedge fund he helped to found, and more than US$5m in salary between January 2016 and June this year.
He was incorrect to suggest that the documents had been leaked, however. Government rules call for them to be released when journalists request them.
– The Times