Mooch returns to place that’ll have him: Wall Street
It is the only place that will have the ex-White House communications director without reservations
Few members of the Trump administration have performed the full gamut of commedia dell'arte characters like Anthony Scaramucci.
From court jester to pugilist, the short-lived White House communications director is returning to the only place - besides the restaurant he owns in midtown Manhattan - that will have him without reservations: Wall Street.
Even amid the tragicomedy that has defined the presidency of Mr Donald Trump, the Mooch's trajectory stands out for its absurdity.
He once supported fellow Harvard Law School classmate Barack Obama. But Mr Scaramucci quickly became one of the few prolific Wall Streeters to offer fulsome praise of candidate Trump, arguing as early as June 2016 that the former reality TV star would kick the pantsuits out of Mrs Hillary Clinton.
He helped him raise money, spoke on his behalf and offered him counsel while most of his colleagues in the financial industry kept clear of the New York real estate developer and serial casino bankruptcy offender.
When Mr Trump won, Mr Scaramucci - who half-jokingly told Breakingviews a week before the election that he was not interested in a government job unless it was ambassador to Rome - received blessings of a different kind.
Days before Mr Trump gave his inauguration speech, HNA Group, a Chinese tourism and airline conglomerate, surprisingly unveiled a US$200 million (S$270 million) bid to acquire a majority stake in SkyBridge Capital, the investment firm Mr Scaramucci had founded.
The deal was a strategic head-scratcher, unless seen as a way for the acquisitive conglomerate to curry favour with the new man in the White House.
None of that worked out. Any hopes Mr Scaramucci might have had of selling the business in a tax-deferred manner were dashed last July, when his role as chief flack for the President ended within days and in a maelstrom of profane humiliation.
Mr Scaramucci called The New Yorker journalist Ryan Lizza to find out who had leaked to the reporter that he had dinner with President Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Fox News host Sean Hannity and former Fox News top executive Bill Shine.
Over the course of the telephone conversation, Mr Scaramucci proceeded to get more and more worked up, lacing his language with expletives.
He went on a verbal tirade against other members of Mr Trump's staff - including Mr Reince Priebus, the former White House chief of staff, and Mr Steve Bannon, the then chief White House strategist.
Now, HNA is backing out of the acquisition - ostensibly due to resistance from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), said the Wall Street Journal.
It is hard to imagine how Chinese ownership of the small-time money manager would have been a threat to national security.
Then again, getting Mr Scaramucci back as co-managing partner of the firm would mean he can do less damage elsewhere.
Maybe there is some logic to CFIUS after all. - REUTERS
The writer is global editor of Breakingviews.
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