Thought Trump’s White House couldn’t get any crazier?
CONTROVERSIAL White House media chief Anthony Scaramucci was sacked last night after little more than a week in the job.
Just six hours after Donald Trump boasted on Twitter that there was ‘no chaos’ in Washington, his communications director’s exit was announced.
Four days earlier Mr Scaramucci had launched a foul-mouthed attack on senior colleagues – which led to the President deciding that his spokesman had ‘insufficient self-control’ for his crucial role.
Mr Scaramucci – nicknamed The Mooch – was also beset by controversy over his private life during his brief tenure, after his wife Deidre, 38, filed for divorce just before giving birth to their second child.
He did not see their son for several days after the birth, instead reportedly sending his estranged wife a text saying: ‘Congratulations, I’ll pray for our child.’
A loud-mouthed and brash multi-millionaire New York financier who was widely compared to the President himself, Mr Scaramucci departs hot on the heels of other recent White House casualties – chief- of- staff Reince Priebus and presidential spokesman Sean Spicer. Sources said Mr Scaramucci was escorted off the White House premises yesterday – just ten days since he arrived – after losing the support of both Mr Trump and his other powerful allies, the President’s daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner.
Mr Scaramucci, 53, had waged a bitter civil war against Mr Priebus. It was claimed last night that he was ousted on the insistence of Mr Priebus’ successor as chief- ofstaff, General John Kelly.
The tough retired US Marines general has been brought in to instill discipline in the back-biting White House administration.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee-Sanders said in a statement yesterday: ‘Mr Scaramucci felt it was best to give John Kelly a clean slate and the ability to build his own team. We wish him all the best.’
Insiders said General Kelly had convinced the President that Mr Scaramucci damaged his credibility with his expletive- ridden attack on senior aides in an interview with a journalist.
Mr Trump admires loyalty and was impressed when Mr Scaramucci forced an embarrassing correction out of CNN over an inaccurate report about the Trump administration’s links with Russia.
However, Mr Trump reportedly became worried that Mr Scaramucci was getting headlines for the wrong reasons. In an angry phonecall to a journalist on The New Yorker last Wednesday, he called Mr Priebus a ‘f****** para- noid schizophrenic’. Turning his anger on to Mr Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon, he said: ‘I’m not Steve Bannon. I’m not trying to **** my own ****. I’m not trying to build my brand off the f****** strength of the President.’
Mr Scaramucci, who had blamed Mr Priebus for some of the many damaging anonymous briefings to the media that have plagued the Trump administration, claimed he wanted to ‘f****** kill’ colleagues who were behind the leaks.
The White House defended the rant at the time, saying he was a ‘passionate guy’ and ‘sometimes he might let that passion get the better of him’. However, sources said yesterday that Mr Trump spent the weekend sounding out allies over Mr Scaramucci’s fate, after General Kelly made his feelings clear as soon as he joined the White House team on Friday.
Mrs Huckabee- Sanders confirmed that Mr Trump ‘certainly felt that Anthony’s comments were inappropriate for a person in that position’.
Mr Scaramucci’s arrival had immediately prompted the resignation of the President’s long-suffering but hapless spokesman, Sean Spicer, who was an ally of Mr Priebus and felt he was being sidelined by the appointment.
Mr Scaramucci had sold his investment firm for £150million in January in the expectation that Mr Trump was about to offer him a senior role in government.
However, the appointment was reportedly blocked by Mr Priebus, leaving Mr Scaramucci desperate for revenge. Although he had once been a supporter of Hillary Clinton and had rubbished Mr Trump’s run for power, Mr Scaramucci immediately deleted all his compromising posts on Twitter and pledged support to his new boss.
His sacking was announced at around 7.30pm. However, just before 1.30pm, Mr Trump tweeted: ‘Highest Stock Market EVER, best economic numbers in years, unemployment lowest in 17 years, wages raising, border secure. No WH [White House] chaos!’
‘Expletive-ridden attack on aides’