Donald Trump’s new White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci was upset by a rule from the Obama administration that required hedge fund managers to pay more attention to the needs of their clients rather than making trades for the express purpose of fattening their own wallets. So he delivered this very measured evaluation.
“It’s about like the Dred Scott decision,” Scaramucci said, promising that a Trump administration would repeal what’s known as the fiduciary rule, part of Obama’s reforms on retirement accounts scheduled to begin taking effect in April.
That’s the level of the discourse the public can expect from the new man charged with creating Trump’s “message.” It’s also exactly why Trump hired Scaramucci. His combative, facts-free style precisely aligns with Trump’s. Scaramucci is there to be Trump’s Great Enabler.
Sean Spicer told Donald Trump not to hire Anthony Scaramucci. Steve Bannon said Scaramucci would get the job “over my dead body.” Reince Preibus hated him. So did Sarah Huckabee-Sanders—though handing her the role of official press secretary likely soothed that hurt. In fact, the consensus of the White House staff is that Scaramucci is “a joke.” So it makes perfect sense that Donald Trump would hire “Mooch” as his new communications director.
Because not just ignoring advice, but actively doing whatever you can to defy that advice, is the hole in which Donald Trump’s head is thoroughly jammed. Meeting with Putin without so much as a U.S. translator, ending support for moderate Syrian rebels, giving out an absolutely witless interview in which he slams his own attorney general and threatens the special counsel … it’s enough to have Donald Trump’s own personal attorney’s looking for a way off this out-of-control train.
What does Scaramucci have to recommend him for the role of White House communications director? Mostly he has Donald Trump’s continuing conception that while he is working so very hard, everyone else is just a loafer. Trump could offer a top position to Scaramucci because he likes him on TV, because it’s not like anyone around him was really doing anything.
The result was that Trump had expected to offer Scaramucci the title and office that goes with White House communications director, while Sean Spicer and Sarah Huckabee Sanders actually did all the work. The idea that Spicer wouldn’t be 100 percent on board this this plan apparently took Trump by surprise. Expect him to get around to attacking his former press secretary in the next ridiculous interview.
Spicer was already … peeved … by the fact that Trump had Hope Hicks along with him on that New York Times interview, and that despite carrying the title of strategic communications director, Hicks’ strategy appeared to be let Donald run off at the mouth and say things that will both damage his ability to deal with any evidence surfaced by the special counsel, and weaken any excuse for dismissing Mueller.
Scaramucci may be able to appear as a stock-flogger during limited appearances on financial news, but there’s no evidence of any broader communications skills. His one capability seems to be that he will defend Trump, and only Trump. Not the White House. Not their policy. Just Trump.
In his brief intro at Friday’s rare televised press briefing, Scaramucci said that he loved Trump … four times. He loved the team. He loved the policies. He also made it clear that he was there to serve the president, serve the president, serve the president, and also serve the president’s agenda.
Don’t expect any subtlety. Don’t expect any strategy. Don’t expect any restraint from saying things that are wildly offensive. Expect him to be like Trump. For example ...
Scaramucci wrote in a follow up email to Investment News reporter Mark Schoeff Jr. that he made the comparison to the 1857 Supreme Court case denying African-Americans citizenship because “the left-leaning Department of Labor has made a decision to discriminate against a class of people who they deem to be adding no value.”
What he means here is that billionaire hedge fund managers can expect to make slightly less while producing significant savings for their clients. That’s exactly like depriving African-Americans of their rights and returning them to slavery. Or at least it is to Anthony Scaramucci.
