Scaramucci’s appearance with Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardball, in which he characterised Mr
Trump’s visit to a hospital in El Paso, Texas, to console those injured in the recent mass shooting as “a
catastrophe”.
“The facts are he did not do well on the trip, because if the trip is being made about him and not the
demonstration of compassion and love and caring and empathy for those people, then it becomes a
catastrophe for him, the administration, and it’s also a bad reflection on the country,” Mr Scaramucci said.
Angered, President Trump accused his ex-spokesperson of bearing a grudge after being denied the chance
to play a meaningful role in the administration (an accusation he also levelled at ex-FBI special counsel
Robert Mueller during the Russia investigation) and of profiteering through his regular TV appearances as
an insider pundit.
“[Scaramucci] now seems to do nothing but television as the all time expert on ‘President Trump’. Like
many other so-called television experts, he knows very little about me,” the commander-in-chief tweeted.
This in turn led Mr Scaramucci to tell Bloomberg News: “At this time I cannot support his re-election and
we need to think about someone new to be at the top of the ticket.”
“By the way, bullying is very anti-American. Should we send him back?” he added, pointedly referring to
what had become a pet issue of the first lady, Melania Trump. “The dam is going to break. People are
embarrassed now.”
Taking to his new role as the unexpected face of the resistance, the combative, if undeniably opportunistic
Anthony Scaramucci has continued to take the fight to the president.
“Trump isn’t racist. He’s worse,” he tweeted on 16 August. “He’s so narcissistic he doesn’t see people as
people. It’s why he doesn’t have any real friends. It’s why he gives a thumbs up next to an orphaned baby
after a mass shooting. Everybody is an obstacle or a stepping stone.”
But perhaps his most telling post came on 12 August, when he wrote: “To those asking, ‘what took so long?’
You’re right. I tried to see best in @realDonaldTrump based on private interactions and select policy
alignment. But his increasingly divisive rhetoric – and damage it’s doing to fabric of our society – outweighs
any short-term economic gain.”
Who might appear in his coalition of ex-cabinet members is anyone’s guess – Rex Tillerson? John Kelly?
Kirstjen Nielsen? – as the list of excommunicated Trump administration officials is long.
But The Mooch – a man once described as “the clowniest of the clowns” by MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell
- is trying to execute one of the most improbable political turnarounds Washington has ever seen.