Scaramucci booted out
‘INAPPROPRIATE’: SPIN DOCTOR’S COMMENTS
General John Kelly comes in as chief of staff in bid to impose order.
Foul-mouthed spin doctor Anthony Scaramucci was axed as White House communications director on Monday, just 10 days after being named to the post and hours after Donald Trump installed a new chief of staff.
The 53-year-old New Yorker, whose profanity-laden rant against colleagues gained him global notoriety, was fired as four-star General John Kelly began his quest to impose order on an administration careening out of control.
During its first six months in office, Trump’s White House has been beset by scandal, investigations, infighting, leaks, sackings, resignations, stinging legislative defeats and historically low approval ratings.
Scaramucci was brought in a little over a week ago to get the White House back on message, but quickly prompted negative headlines of his own. He publicly called chief of staff Reince Priebus, who was forced out last week, a “paranoid schizophrenic” and denounced chief White House strategist Steve Bannon in lurid sexual terms.
The White House refused to say whether it was Trump or Kelly who precipitated Scaramucci’s shock departure, but it seems clear both were unhappy with his presence. “The president firmly felt that Anthony’s comments were inappropriate for a person in that position,” said White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders. She added that everyone in the West Wing, including Scaramucci, reported to Kelly, a return to tradition for a White House that has been anything but.
Kelly inherits the day-to-day running of an administration that looks like a regiment pinned down by heavy fire, getting conflicting orders from their commander and squabbling over the way forward. In Trump’s White House, a rotating cast of family and staff with unclear roles and opaque job titles seem to be able to walk into the Oval Office at will.
Despite Kelly’s empowerment, many question whether anyone can rein in Trump, who has appeared to encourage the infighting among factions vying for influence in his administration. –