Commanded former 4-star Marine Corps general and new White House Chief of Staff, John Kelly in the immediate firing of Communications Director, Anthony Scaramucci. With brash, trash-talking vulgarities in a phone interview with The New Yorker Magazine, the Mooch, as Mr. Scaramucci likes to call himself, accused the White House staff of leaks to the press and threatened to fire the entire communications staff.
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While Mr. Kelly’s concerns were reportedly the decisive factors in Mr. Scaramucci’s departure, it was reported by Mike Allen, the co-founder of the Web site Axios that, “initially, we’re told, the President loved the Mooch quotes.” But Mr. Trump’s family helped him quickly sour on his newly-appointed bombastic, Long Island-bred former hedge fund manager.
Recruited as Mr. Trump’s tough-talking alter ego to ferociously fight for the President in a way others had not, Mr. Scaramucci went too far even in the eyes of a President who delights in pushing the boundaries of political and social decorum, the New York Times noted.
Sporting a blinding ambition that triggered his current divorce proceedings, the 52-year-old Wall Street financier had been “hell-bent” on claiming his position at the White House after he was originally pegged for a senior role and, in preparation, sold his Sky Bridge Capital investment firm.
Blocked by Reince Priebus, Mr. Trump’s then Chief of Staff whom Mr. Scaramucci characterized in the tirade as a #$%$)*&6 “paranoid schizophrenic,” and Stephen K. Bannon, the Chief White House Strategist before an aggressive campaign, Mr. Scaramucci was made the Director of Communications in mid July, triggering then Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s resignation.
The New Yorker weighed in with: “Originally endorsed by Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, Mr. Scaramucci seems to have been installed to carry out Donald Trump’s management style in his personal language of obscenity and contempt to help demean and get rid of retainers who have proved disappointing or threatening to his interests.”
In addition, Mr. Scaramucci seemed to be, at least for the moment, overshadowing the President — a fact that Breitbart News, which Mr. Bannon once directed, pointed out in a headline describing Mr. Trump as second fiddle to his Communications Director.
The moral:
Mr. Scaramucci has not learned from his idol and role model, President Trump, that to threaten the media, in this case to reveal a source, and abuse his power, only heightens the scrutiny and enhances the focus of intrepid journalists.
The morning after his midnight confession, Mr. Scaramucci tweeted: “I made a mistake in ‘trusting’ a reporter. It won’t happen again.” General Kelly made certain that it won’t.