The newly appointed communications director is intent on ‘fixing’ the West Wing — and ousting other top aides.
Scaramucci’s arrival was described by one adviser as “a cannonball from a diving board into a pool.” With his brash outer-borough New York ethos and flair for showmanship, Scaramucci is perhaps more like Trump himself than anyone else on the White House staff — and his appointment is a clear signal that the president is walking away from his initial embrace of establishment Republicans familiar with Washington.
Instead, Trump is choosing the gut-driven approach that won him the presidency. And that especially doesn’t bode well for Priebus.
.. The chief of staff has seen his power base steadily erode, losing first his deputy Katie Walsh, who departed the administration in March and recently returned to the RNC, and then press secretary Sean Spicer, who resigned after it was clear that Scaramucci would be above him in the West Wing.
.. Priebus’ usual defenders in the White House seemed subdued on Thursday, a noticeable shift from earlier in the administration, when public criticism of the chief of staff was met with a rapid response. No one seemed empowered to defend Priebus, unlike in the early days, when two paragraphs in a story about him could prompt six or more phone calls.
.. One person who spoke with Priebus over the weekend said he’d wanted to make it to one year in the White House, but has settled for staying “at least through health care.”
.. Priebus has begun calling allies and asking for advice on whether he should stay in the job and how he should handle the situation, according to people familiar with the talks. One such call went to Speaker Paul Ryan earlier this week, who advised Priebus to stay and that the president needed him. “They speak often,” said Doug Andres, a Ryan spokesman, who declined to comment further.
.. Newly elevated press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to give Priebus a direct vote of confidence at the daily briefing Thursday, saying the president would “let you know” if he wasn’t happy with his staff. “The president enjoys healthy competition,” Sanders said.
.. He said there are only two people who can be trusted in the White House. “I can tell you two fish that don’t stink,” Scaramucci said to CNN. “That’s me and the president.”
.. “There are people inside this administration that think it’s their job to save America from this president,” he added.
.. Whether Scaramucci, who seems to have an innate understanding of Trump, remains his “flavor of the month,” in the words of one adviser, seems unclear. But friends say Trump is already more comfortable with Scaramucci — who is forceful and smooth on TV — and that he respects Scaramucci for his business acumen.
.. “If this is less of a s—show because Anthony Scaramucci is imposing some discipline and getting things done, that’s good for the country. It’s good for the country to have a functioning government even if you disagree vehemently,” said Stu Loeser, a friend and former press secretary to Michael Bloomberg.
.. “It is totally out of control, chaos,” Zelizer said. “This is unnerving people in Washington and everywhere, where the president’s advisers can’t get him to do anything and are behaving like this.”
.. And Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker who serves as a surrogate for Trump, offered some advice to Priebus, as he copes with being on the ropes: “Just do your job.”
Anthony Scaramucci Attacks Reince Priebus as Leaker and Vows to Oust Him
The internal rivalries of the White House spilled out into stark public view on Thursday as President Trump’s new communications director publicly attacked the chief of staff, calling him a “paranoid schizophrenic” leaker and vowing to get him fired.
.. Anthony Scaramucci, who was installed as White House communications director last week over the objections of the chief of staff, Reince Priebus, in the morning called into CNN to say that the two men were at odds and to dare Mr. Priebus to deny being a leaker. By the evening, The New Yorker had posted an interview quoting Mr. Scaramucci using vulgar language to describe Mr. Priebus.
.. Mr. Scaramucci suggested that he believed that Mr. Priebus was leaking information to damage him. “Reince is a fucking paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac,” he said.
.. In the same telephone call, Mr. Scaramucci disparaged Stephen K. Bannon, the president’s chief strategist, who also warned against hiring him as communications director. “I’m not Steve Bannon. I’m not trying to suck my own cock,” he said. “I’m not trying to build my own brand off the fucking strength of the president. I’m here to serve the country.”
.. Mr. Lizza had posted a message on Twitter on Wednesday night reporting that Mr. Trump and Mr. Scaramucci were having dinner at the White House with Sean Hannity, the Fox News host and a strong supporter of the president, and Bill Shine, a former Fox executive. Mr. Scaramucci called Mr. Lizza unsolicited to demand that he identify his source.
.. When Mr. Lizza would not, Mr. Scaramucci said, “O.K., I’m going to fire every one of them, and then you haven’t protected anybody, so the entire place will be fired over the next two weeks.”
.. But the leak he was complaining about was no leak. Lorraine Woellert, Politico’s reporter on the story, explained that she simply requested the financial disclosure form through normal channels and was provided it by a government agency as required by federal law... “When I put out a tweet and I put Reince’s name in the tweet, they’re all making the assumption that it’s him because journalists know who the leakers are,” he said. “So if Reince wants to explain that he’s not a leaker, let him do that. Let me tell you something about myself. I am a straight shooter and I’ll go right to the heart of the matter.”Comments:
And, by the way, please someone find the “hot list” of upcoming distractions to be used any day there’s a real agenda setback. Yesterday’s transgender military tweet kept us all away from watching the health care debate in America sink to new lows. Find and LEAK the outrage list so we can immunize ourselves to these “bright, shiny” issues beforehand, and not take our collective eyes off the cannonball coming straight at all of us. The Trump core base is said to be seeking revenge on the nation for their marginalization, but I for one am not going to be done in by lies, innuendo and profanity, even if it oozes out of the White House or the president’s own mouth.
.. Apparently what Donald Trump thinks saved him from all of his near catastrophes in business was hiring staff who pledged their undying loyalty and never told him the truth. But what that did instead was fuel his reckless behavior, and the only thing that saved him from ruin was the safety net of bankruptcy court. So now he’s repeating the same pattern, but there’s no bankruptcy court at the end of this road, just a Special Counsel... Trump has a new friend in the White House. Someone who will spend any amount of time verbally caressing him, reflecting on Trump’s greatness and whispering sweet conspiracy in his ears.
Scaramucci and Trump are perfect together. Scaramucci will find the proof, gosh darn it, he will that the real and only problem of this Trump administration is the ‘deep state’ leakers. If The Mooch and Trump can round ’em up and punish them severely, then all will be right in Trumpworld.
When not searching for those leakers, Scaramucci will be wandering the White House in search of the government approval he needs for his big business deal.
He stands to make more than 90 million in selling his company when the government signs off. I am sure Trump will be able to smooth the path for The Mooch as long as The Mooch stays on course and hideously praises him every day... The Mooch can navigate his way through the Sunday shows with a type of wit that charms the Trump base. He is combative, quick, witty, but knows absolutely nothing about the type of communication needed to create, trust and security. He will just add to the confusion and misinformation. Ironic that he is the White House Communications Director. Perhaps the title should be White House Spin Doctor. He is just another snake in the swamp right next to Conway and Bannon and Sanders — all MAGA soldiers doing Trump’s bigoted, dysfunctional bidding... Scaramucci is a person in the same mold as Trump, which is why he was hired. He has no experience in government and has no intention to try to make the government look like it is functioning. The fact that he accepted this position, knowing the chaos Trump has created in just seven months, speaks to his naiveté. Just one more person in this alarmingly incompetent administration who has no clue, no professionalism, and no understanding of how government works. I don’t know how we can survive this administration unless Republicans and Democrats unite to stop the madness.
The ‘Russian Lawyer Meeting’ Story Is a Giant Red Herring
Notice how the goalposts have shifted. The question of collusion has always concerned Russian efforts to intervene in the 2016 presidential election, allegedly by hacking the Democratic National Committee and other targets.
What the Russian lawyer allegedly offered was entirely different — information “that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Mrs. Clinton,” Trump, Jr. told the Times.
.. That has nothing whatsoever to do with the hacking allegations, and actually inverts the dominant media narrative, as it suggests that Clinton, not Trump, might have been the one colluding with the Russians in the 2016 election.