To those who enjoyed the Scaramucci show and are sad that it has come to an end, please consider the old adage: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Anthony Scaramucci came into the Trump administration like a knight in shining armor. Besieged with constant infiltration, leaks and seemingly unprecedented turmoil throughout his first six months, President Trump needed a man to come in like gang busters and take care of business. Replacing Sean Spicer, Scaramucci came in as White House communications director guns a-blazin’ with a style so brash and confrontational that it may have made the POTUS himself blush. Scaramucci Dice Clay, I dubbed him, because of the obvious similarities between he and the insanely foul 1980’s comedy powerhouse.
Trump said that at some point we would be officially sick of winning, and he wasn’t kidding. The American public wanted a shake-up, and by God, we got what we wanted good and hard with Scaramucci, as the legendary pundit H.L. Mencken would have said. While his over-the-top and unprofessional antics may have served a purpose, his flame out was necessary before he did damage to worthwhile parts of the Trump administration.
Scaramucci’s intentions could never be trusted. Although he claimed total allegiance to the President and we never had any reason to deny his loyalty for Trump (he is even going through a messy public divorce right now to prove it), that personal loyalty does not necessarily extend to the President’s “America First” agenda. Scaramucci is a long-time Wall Street raider, a corporate hot shot, a man with New York City values, and a limousine liberal. After helping orchestrate the ouster of Chief of Staff Reince Priebus–a weasel for whom nobody will be shedding any tears–the next target on Scaramucci’s hit list appeared to be chief strategist Steve Bannon.
“I’m not Steve Bannon, I’m not trying to suck my own c-ck,” Scaramucci said to a reporter for the New Yorker last week. “I’m not trying to build my own brand off the f-cking strength of the President. I’m here to serve the country.”
Considering Scaramucci had spent the entire week front-running during media appearances while Bannon largely stays in the shadows despite being a powerful administration figure, his vulgar comments seemed specious and unnecessary. In fact, one could even say those comments were deliberately made to reinforce the mainstream media’s false narratives. The mainstream media pushed the idea that Trump was Bannon’s puppet in an attempt to stifle Bannon’s influence, which apparently worked for some time. Trump’s recent rebuking of the Paris climate accords, his delivery of a strong nationalist speech in Poland, and negotiating a Syrian ceasefire with Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested that the “America First” forces within the White House were gaining steam, but Scaramucci’s rise put those accomplishments in jeopardy.
To retaliate, Bannon waged a war of his own against Scaramucci through his former media platform, Breitbart. Tony Lee made the observation that Scaramucci is in fact a leaker himself after having “a phone call with someone he knew to be a reporter during which he was talking about internal feuds, trashing his colleagues, his own conversations with the president and that Priebus would be forced to resign soon.” In his haste, Scaramucci was obviously guilty of all the things he accused Bannon of doing, and much more. Trump obviously saw that Bannon and his surrogates were making a lot of sense with their criticism, and showed “Mooch” the door.
The impetus of wanting wild men to come into Washington D.C. and shake things up is more than understandable. I would even be open to a Scaramucci-esque cartoon character to serve in a certain position–say, Alex Jones or Milo Yiannopoulos for Press Secretary for examples–but this was just not the right fit. Before landing this gig, Scaramucci was on the record in support of Hillary Clinton, attacking the idea of a border wall, championing the cause of global warming, apologizing for radical Islam, and initially supporting Scott Walker, then Jeb Bush, for President in 2016. Although we will always hold a soft spot in our hearts for Scaramucci for disgracing Priebus and showing him the door, it is definitely better for Trump and his “America First” agenda that he was promptly put out to pasture.
