Pilloried Spicer quits as White House press chief

SEAN SPICER, the embattled White House press secretary, resigned yesterday, ending a tumultuous tenure attempting to defend President Donald Trump.

“It’s been an honour and a privilege to serve @POTUS @realdonaldtrump & this amazing country,” he tweeted.

Mr Spicer’s departure after six months in the post was made public following the appointment of Anthony Scaramucci as White House communications director.

Mr Spicer had reportedly told friends that he would resign if Mr Scaramucci, a Wall Street trader and television personality, was chosen for the top communications role.

Mr Scaramucci will take over from Mike Dubke, who resigned in May. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Mr Spicer’s deputy, will become press secretary.

“This is obviously a difficult situation but I wish him well and I hope he goes on to make a tremendous amount of money,” said Mr Scaramucci, holding court yesterday in the White House press room and repeatedly professing his “love” for Mr Spicer and Mr Trump.

He said the president “has some of the best political instincts in the world, perhaps in history,” and described Reince Priebus, the chief of staff who reportedly opposed his appointment, as being “like a brother”.

“I don’t have any friction with Sean, I don’t have any friction with Reince,” he said.

Mr Spicer, 45, had become one of the most recognisable faces of Mr Trump’s administration, in part due to mockery at the hands of Melissa Mccarthy, who parodied him to devastating effect on Saturday Night Live.

An experienced political operative, he got off to an inauspicious start in January when he used his first press conference to berate the press corps for its reporting on the size of the inauguration crowd.

It memorably led to Kellyanne Conway, a White House adviser, describing Mr Spicer’s words as “alternative facts”. He was also criticised for appearing to downplay the Holocaust by saying that “even Hitler” had not stooped to the lows of Syria’s Bashar al-assad.

When James Comey was fired, Mr Spicer was caught off guard and was described by the Washington Post as being forced to huddle with his team in the bushes to develop an on-the-fly strategy.