SMOOCH PURSUIT
Lookin’ for love, jilted hedgie visits White House
Wall Street hedgie Anthony Scaramucci paid a visit to the White House on Wednesday in a last-ditch effort to keep alive the offer of a top job in the Trump administration, The Post has learned.
The 53-year-old investor met with Trump senior advisers in the West Wing, including possibly Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and the president himself, sources said.
Scaramucci is hoping to ease concerns about the $200 million sale of his hedge fund, SkyBridge Capital, to investors led by China-based HNA Group.
HNA has ties to the Chinese communist party, according to numerous reports.
Scaramucci, an early Trump supporter, seemed a shoo-in for the White House job as an assistant to President Trump for Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs until the HNA tie was revealed.
In an attempt to repair the damage, The Mooch, as he is affectionately known on Wall Street, re-jiggered the deal and has agreed to sell his stake to his partners ahead of any overall sale, sources said.
The SkyBridge partners took a loan to buy Scaramucci’s stake, a source said.
The Mooch’s job prospects could also be aided by buyout king Stephen Schwarzman, whose Black- stone Group last fall sold a stake in the Hilton hotel chain to HNA for $6.2 billion.
Schwarzman may have backed The Mooch in recent meetings with Trump, sources said.
Still, The Mooch has to win over Priebus who was, perhaps, the Wall Streeter’s most vocal critic, sources said. It was Priebus who put up the roadblock, three sources close to the situation said.
“Getting in the building is the easy part, the hard part is staying there,” a source close to Priebus told The Post.
Priebus, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, is blocking the Long Island native’s path to the White House job because he “finds Mooch uncontrollable,” said a source close to the Priebus camp.
In the Jan. 23 issue of New York magazine, Scaramucci ruffled the feathers of some White House staffers when he sat for a lengthy profile.
“Mooch was auditioning, and he didn’t pass,” the source said.
Scaramucci had already been offered the public liaison post when Priebus’ team pushed the story in the media about regulatory concerns over SkyBridge’s China sale, sources said.
Priebus told Scaramucci he had to withdraw because the Office of Governmental Ethics would take too long to review his SkyBridge sale, sources said. But the OGE does not review nominees, and Scaramucci could have been sworn in at any time, sources said.
“Mooch is fighting back and that is why he is still alive,” the source close to Priebus said. The Mooch is expected to continue discussions on Thursday.
Scaramucci could not be reached. Priebus did not return calls.