It’s Donald or me!
Trump’s foul-mouthed new press supremo is dumped by wife who is tired of his ‘naked political ambition’
PRESIDENT Trump’s toughtalking new head of communications has been dumped by his wife because she hated his ‘naked political ambition’, it was claimed last night.
Multi-millionaire Wall Street tycoon Anthony Scaramucci, 53, known as ‘the Mooch’, was served divorce papers last week by wife of three years Deidre Ball because she reportedly dislikes Mr Trump and could not understand her husband’s obsession with power.
Ms Ball, 38, who has two young children with Mr Scaramucci, could not face moving from Long Island, New York, to Washington, according to reports in the US.
Foul-mouthed Mr Scaramucci made headlines last week when he called Mr Trump’s ex-White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, ‘a f ****** paranoid schizophrenic’ and said another rival, the President’s chief strategist Steve Bannon, was ‘trying to suck his own **** ’.
He later apologised for using ‘colourful language’.
Mr Priebus was unceremoniously replaced on Friday, bringing an end to a tumultuous week in Washington which also saw the resignation of press secretary Sean Spicer. He quit after Mr Scaramucci’s controversial appointment was announced.
According to insiders, Mr Priebus became an enemy of Mr Scaramucci in January. He had sold his Wall Street hedge fund in preparation for a senior White House role, only to be blocked by Mr Priebus. Mr Scaramucci dismissively refers to him as ‘Reince Penis’.
The financier met his glamorous blonde wife at investment firm SkyBridge Capital, which he founded in 2005. They married in 2014 after three years of dating.
A source close to the couple said: ‘She liked the nice Wall Street life and their home on Long Island, not the insane world of DC [Washington].
‘She is tired of his naked ambition, which is so enormous that it left her at her wits’ end. She has left him, even though they have two children together. She is not a fan of Trump.’
A friend of Mr Scaramucci defended him, saying: ‘I don’t know who Deidre thought she was marrying but anyone who knows Anthony knows he’s an ambitious man.’ It is not the first time Mr Scaramucci has faced discord at home over his Rightwing views. His first wife Lisa Miranda, 54, mother of his eldest daughter Amelia, 20, was a passionate supporter of Mr Trump’s presidential rival Hillary Clinton and wrote on US election day: ‘Putting on my pantsuit now... and heading to vote.’
This was an apparent reference to Mrs Clinton’s penchant for tailored, two-piece trouser suits.
Ms Scaramucci also posted a comment to a relative on her Facebook page after Mr Trump’s victory last November, saying: ‘Aunt Lorraine, any chance you can make me some of that amazing baby eggplant and stuffed artichokes before Trump blows up the world?’
Mr Scaramucci declined to comment on his marriage breakdown yesterday but took to Twitter saying: ‘Leave civilians out of this. I can take the hits but I would ask that you would put my family in your thoughts and prayers and nothing more.’
Born to a working-class Italian family in Long Island, he made millions in Wall Street before setting up SkyBridge Capital.
Mr Scaramucci, who was a key member of Mr Trump’s campaign finance team, has been friends with him for many years. While Mr Scaramucci has not disclosed his net worth, the hedge fund he founded has assets of £9.5billion. When he sold his stake in January in preparation for joining the White House staff, he reportedly banked as much as £150million.
‘She liked Wall Street life, not insane DC’
THE most mundane of problems can teach you the most profound lessons. Years ago a bachelor friend of mine told of a neighbour in his tenement block who had come up to complain that there was water pouring from his flat into theirs.
He called a plumber, convinced it was dripping from somewhere around his estranged washing machine. After much heaving and sucking of teeth, the plumber cleared the washing machine of any guilt and suggested they go into the bathroom. In it was a cabinet that encased the lower parts of the sink. The plumber suggested looking in there.
It was a space my friend never used for its intended purpose but did find useful when the buzzer went unexpectedly and he found a grown-up from the clean world – usually an aunt – had come for a visit on the off-chance he was in.
The time it took them to get up the stairs he found was just long enough to pick up anything he didn’t wanted them to see and stuff it in the bathroom cupboard. Once there it was out of sight and, sadly, forever out of his mind.
OPENING the toothpaste-stained, faux mahogany, B&Q louvred doors the plumber found a treasure trove of underpants, cigarette packets with one fag left in them, an aluminium carton containing things that had once been barbecue ribs among other objets d’art of a young single man.
The plumber forgot his training and instead of sucking teeth blew through his lips and a truism of politics was once again proved.
You might think you’ve got a leak and know where it is coming from, but if you start trying to find it publicly, strangers will find out other things about you that are more difficult to explain and you would rather remain hidden.
President Trump’s new communications director Anthony Scaramucci should know that story and wake up and smell the ribs.
In a spectacular profanity-filled first week, he has defamed his rival in the President’s chief of staff Reince Priebus, blamed him for leaking and forced him out. That may appear a job well done but it tells us much more about the paranoia of the White House than any leak could.
Where Margaret Thatcher had Sir Bernard Ingham, and Tony Blair had Alistair Campbell, it would appear President Trump has hired Sonny Corleone to do his talking for him – hot-tempered, big on boasts and small on thinking. I doubt he has found the leak.
Most people who go into politics do so out of principle. They believe. Yes, there are a few four-letter fellows amongst them but, in proof that God is a democrat, they tend to be evenly sprinkled between the parties.
There are three reasons these believers can leak. One is naivety – they don’t understand that what they say is of interest to others.
The second is malice and need. People who think politics is about doing others in. I once worked with a man who was so excited by seeing his venomous briefings about colleagues to journalists over a pint in print he said things ultimately damaging to the boss he thought he was protecting, just for the attention and the booze.
The third is principle. They believe that things are being done that people should know about because they are against their beliefs. That is what President Trump should be attending to. Changing his offering to the world rather than just the wrapping around his gifts.
The problem is that the entrepreneurial President Trump sees the United States as his opportunity, not his cause.
For him the Presidency is a franchise he bid for and won. The voters did not do due diligence and now he finds it difficult to deliver on his offer.
He got them to buy him a timeshare deal on the White House and now hopes terms and conditions don’t apply.
HE doesn’t know what to do so he looks for leaks and leakers rather than looking for the causes of the holes in his ship. The President should learn from very recent lessons from just across the pond.
Whitehall is awash with tales of how Theresa May’s office used to work. It is said her advisers were so fearful of leaks from other Cabinet Ministers’ advisers, they would occasionally leak something sensitive themselves and then in faux outrage order an inquiry.
That would give them access to other advisers’ emails and phones often revealing merely personal, not political, information. Messages to partners and loved ones.
That culture of fear did not build loyalty but it did destroy trust.
President Trump may be celebrating his decisiveness this weekend but that is not the question. It is not his willingness to act that is the problem, it is the quality of his decisions.
If there is any time between tweets for him to reflect he should consider two things.
His new chief of staff John Kelly may be a good appointment, but the last US President to appoint a general to that role was Richard Nixon at the height of Watergate.
The second is that in The Godfather the enemies of Sonny Corleone play on his famous temper and trick him.
He dies in a hail of bullets.