Friday, 11th October 2024

Scaramucci ‘forced out’ of White House after TEN days

Decision was first by Trump's new chief of staff

Tuesday, 1st August 2017

©REUTERS

US President Donald Trump ousted recently hired White House communications chief Anthony Scaramucci in the latest staff upheaval for the six-month-old administration.

An obscene tirade against his own colleagues led to a barrage of criticism against Scaramucci.

The move, coming just 10 days after the Republican president named Scaramucci to the post, took place on the first day of work for Trump's new chief of staff.

Sources says that retired Marine Corps General John Kelly is seeking to impose order on a White House riven with factions and backbiting.

"There's a new sheriff in town," said Barry Bennett, a former Trump campaign adviser.

A Republican close to Trump said the president fretted on the weekend over what to do about Scaramucci, calling his advisers to ask their opinion, all of whom told him the tough-talking aide had to go.

Trump was annoyed about lewd comments to The New Yorker magazine published last Thursday.

There was also irritation about how the abrasive New York financier appeared to inflate the strength of their friendship, since he had started the 2016 presidential election cycle as a fundraiser for two Trump rivals, Scott Walker and Jeb Bush.

Unstable times

Kelly summoned Scaramucci to Kelly's office on Monday morning and fired him on the spot, the official said. It was one of Kelly's first acts as chief of staff.

"A great day at the White House!" Trump tweeted on Monday evening.

The departure of Scaramucci followed one of the rockiest weeks of Trump's presidency in which a major Republican effort to overhaul the US healthcare system failed in Congress and both his spokesman and previous chief of staff left their jobs as White House infighting burst into the open.

Scaramucci's comments to The New Yorker included a profanity-laced attack against then-White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and Trump's chief strategist, Steve Bannon.