Trump's new chief of staff fires foul-mouthed Scaramucci, Latest World News - The New Paper
World

Trump's new chief of staff fires foul-mouthed Scaramucci

This article is more than 12 months old

White House communications director fired after just 10 days

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump ousted recently hired White House communications chief Anthony Scaramucci on Monday over an obscene tirade, sources familiar with the decision said, in the latest staff upheaval for the six-month-old administration.

The move, coming just 10 days after the Republican president named Mr Scaramucci, known as The Mooch, to the post, took place on the first day of work for Mr Trump's new chief of staff, retired Marine Corps General John Kelly, who was reportedly seeking to impose order on a White House riven with factions and backbiting. "There's a new sheriff in town," said Mr Barry Bennett, a former Trump campaign adviser.

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

Mr Trump was annoyed about Mr Scaramucci's lewd comments to The New Yorker magazine published last Thursday and at 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 fund-raiser for two of Mr Trump's rivals, Mr Scott Walker and Mr Jeb Bush.

Mr Trump decided it was time to cut him loose, the source said. Mr Kelly, who also wanted him removed, summoned Mr Scaramucci to his 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!" Mr Trump tweeted on Monday evening.

The departure of Mr Scaramucci followed one of the rockiest weeks of Mr 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.

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

donald trumpunited statespolitics