The Untold Truth Of Anthony Scaramucci

When hedge fund manager and Fox News contributor Anthony "The Mooch" Scaramucci became the White House Communications Director on July 21, 2017, for a brief moment, it looked like the beleaguered Trump administration had finally found a smooth, polished professional to work the press after months of questionable results from former Press Secretary Sean Spicer. But that impression would barely last a few days before Scaramucci revealed his true colors and became a lightning rod for controversy. Just a little over a week after getting the White House gig, Trump fired him. Clearly, there was more to The Mooch than meets the eye.

The announcement of Scaramucci's appointment came packaged with the news that Spicer had resigned his roles as press secretary and acting communications director, which he'd been fulfilling since Trump's inauguration. According to The New York Times, Spicer "vehemently disagreed" with hiring Scaramucci, a move that had been in the works for months but was reportedly being held up by White House Chief of Staff, and Spicer ally, Reince Priebus.

Spicer put up a loyal front in public by appearing on Hannity (via HuffPost) and telling viewers that his resignation was designed to give Scaramucci and new Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders a "clean slate to start from."

But, as The Washington Post and others soon noted, Spicer may have been right about The Mooch.

After months of combative dynamics between the White House and the press, Scaramucci seemed shockingly comfortable at the podium, compared to Spicer's usual awkwardness. Both conservative and liberal press outlets described The Mooch as "smooth" during his first televised briefing, according to The Daily Caller. He even signed off by blowing a kiss to reporters, which lit up Twitter. This guy definitely knew how to work a room, but that doesn't mean his big debut was free from warning signs.

During Scaramucci's first press conference, he was asked if his appointment was an effort to better defend Trump from negative reports in the press about his campaign's alleged collusion with Russia during the 2016 election. The Mooch responded by talking about how awesome Trump is at sports. 

"Here's what I'll tell you about the president," he said (via The Washington Post.) "He's the most competitive person I've ever met, OK? I've seen this guy throw a dead spiral through a tire. I've seen him at Madison Square Garden with a topcoat on, he's standing in the key and he's hitting foul shots and swishing them, OK? He sinks three-foot putts. I don't see this guy as a guy that's ever under siege. This is a very, very competitive person."

It was an odd answer. To make things even weirder, Newsweek reported that the official White House transcript changed the length of Trump's putts from 3 feet to 30 feet. As communications director, The Mooch is in charge of official transcripts, and the whole thing simply could have been a typo, but his office refused to respond to inquiries about it. Not a good look. But it wouldn't be the first time Scaramucci allegedly adjusted the public records.

As news of his appointment spread, it didn't take long for journalists and eagle-eyed Twitter users to dig through Scaramucci's tweets and find some pretty peculiar statements. Turns out, The Mooch was not only a very vocal critic of Trump, but according to New York Magazine, he practically disagreed with the president on everything from gun control, building a wall, gay rights, and the big one: Russia. Awkward.

Scaramucci turned those tweets into an even bigger story when he deleted them from his account. "Full transparency: I'm deleting old tweets," The Mooch wrote on Twitter. "Past views evolved & shouldn't be a distraction. I serve @POTUS agenda & that's all that matters."

Keep in mind, this happened the day after Scaramucci officially started at the White House, and in less than 24 hours, he'd make another questionable move that showed he might be in over his head.

Just two days after his first press briefing, The Mooch appeared on CNN's State of the Union, where he attempted to downplay allegations that Russia meddled with the 2016 election.

"There's a lot of disinformation out there," Scaramucci told host Jake Tapper (via The Hill). "Somebody said to me yesterday—I won't tell you who—that if the Russians actually hacked this situation and spilled out those emails, you would have never seen it, you would have never had any evidence of them."

When Tapper asked who made these claims, The Mooch attempted to make a power move by burning his source. "How about it was the president, Jake? I talked to him yesterday, he called me from Air Force One, and he basically said to me: 'Hey you know, maybe they did it, maybe they didn't do it.'"

This is weird because Scaramucci essentially revealed that he's willing to cite Trump as an "anonymous source" on Russia. That's some sketchy stuff.

When he wasn't burning anonymous sources that also happened to be the president, Scaramucci was landing himself in hot water over statements about Press Secretary Sanders that many perceived as sexist. 

According to The Daily Dot, The Mooch told State of the Union, "I think Sarah does a great job. She's an incredibly warm person. She's incredibly authentic." He added, "Sarah, if you're watching. I love the hair and makeup person that we had on Friday, so I'd like to continue to use the hair and makeup person."

Scaramucci later tweeted that he was talking about the makeup work he personally received, but Jezebel wasn't buying it. "Friday's look involved a heavier styling hand, with Sanders' previously straight hair curled into soft waves," journalist Lauren Evans wrote. "Her once lightly-applied makeup has been given the Trump Treatment, with thick coats of bronzer and dark, dense smears of eyeshadow. In Trump Land, femininity is a woman's chief virtue. And how is a woman supposed to look feminine without heaping gobs of makeup?"

Again, this happened barely three days into The Mooch's tenure. And the hits just kept on coming.

Since its beginning, the Trump administration has been plagued by leaks and has taken an aggressive stance on stopping them, with very little luck. Naturally, Scaramucci adopted this stance, and while talking to Politico, The Mooch threatened to "fire everybody" in the White House communications office in order to stop the leaks. Except, while making his threats, Scaramucci accidentally revealed that he planned to remove Assistant Press Directory Michael Short. When Short heard the news, he resigned before he could be canned.

Scaramucci blamed the incident on "leakers," even though the information came from him. "This is the problem with the leaking," he told reporters, according to the New York Post. "This is actually a terrible thing. Let's say I'm firing Michael Short today. The fact that you guys know about it before he does really upsets me as a human being and as a Roman Catholic." Scaramucci then threatened the entire communications office for a second time, saying that Trump backs him "a thousand percent."

"You're either going to stop leaking or you're going to get fired," The Mooch said (via Politico). "If I got to get this thing down to me and [White House press secretary] Sarah Huckabee [Sanders], then the leaking will stop."

For months, White House Chief of Staff Priebus reportedly blocked Scaramucci from landing a role in the administration because The Mooch had a pending deal with China that Priebus didn't want anywhere near Trump, according to Business Insider. Obviously, Priebus' objections were eventually overruled, and shortly after Scaramucci publicly joined the team, information about the profitable Chinese deal was published in Politico. The Mooch was furious.

In a now-infamous rant, Scaramucci called journalist Ryan Lizza of The New Yorker and proceeded to unload on Priebus, who The Mooch believed was the source of the Politico story and the source of a recent leak about Sean Hannity and Fox News exec Bill Shine having a private dinner at the White House.

"Reince is a f**king paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac," Scaramucci told Lizza. "'Oh, Bill Shine is coming in. Let me leak the f**king thing and see if I can c**k-block these people the way I c**k-blocked Scaramucci for six months.'"

Scaramucci also claimed to The New Yorker, and all of Twitter, that he reported Priebus to the FBI for leaking financial disclosures about his Chinese business deal, but there was one small problem. Those financial disclosures were public information. That didn't stop Scaramucci from continuing his tirade the next morning on CNN.

The morning after he accused Priebus on Twitter of being a leak (he deleted the Twitter rant about an hour later), Scaramucci made an unscheduled call into CNN's New Day and kind of walked back his claims about Priebus, but not really.

"When I put out a tweet and I put Reince's name in a tweet, they're all making the assumption that it's him because journalists know who the leakers are," Scaramucci said. "So if Reince wants to explain he's not a leaker, let him do that. But let me tell you about myself. I'm a straight shooter and I'll go right to the heart of the matter." He added. "The President and I would like to tell everybody we have a very, very good idea of who the leakers are, who the senior leakers are in the White House."

And then things went really crazy. "Those are the types of leaks that are so treasonous that 150 years ago, people would have actually been hung for those types of leaks," he said.

For everyone keeping score, this interview happened only six days after Scaramucci took the podium and wowed reporters with his "smooth" delivery. In under a week, the polished communicator was already cracking under the intense pressure of working in Trump's White House. What else could go wrong?

During his call with New Day, Scaramucci cited late Penn State University football coach Joe Paterno as someone that White House staffers should look up to. The same Paterno who allegedly knew that former defensive coach Jerry Sandusky had been sexually assaulting young boys for decades using Penn State facilities.

"Why don't you honor the job?" The Mooch told New Day (via The Wrap). "Remember Joe Paterno? What would he say? 'Act like you've been there before.' Act with honor and dignity and respect and hold the confidence of the presidency in his office."

In Scaramucci's defense, Trump once mentioned Paterno on the campaign trail by famously asking a crowd in Pittsburgh, "How's Joe Paterno? Are we going to bring that back, right? How about that whole deal?" While that wasn't one of Trump's best moment, we could understand The Mooch taking cues from his boss.

However, The Hollywood Reporter learned that Scaramucci is the executive producer for HBO's upcoming Paterno movie starring Al Pacino, which means The Mooch might be engaged in some shameless promotion. What was that about honoring the job?

While Scaramucci's foul-mouthed tirade in The New Yorker has convinced some journalists that his time in the White House will be embarrassingly short, Trump reportedly "loved" The Mooch's colorful quotes about Priebus. After Scaramucci appeared on New Day, Fox News reported that Sanders supposedly confirmed that the president actually encouraged the feud because he "enjoys healthy competition and conversation."

It's probably not a surprise that Priebus resigned on the same day as Scaramucci's New Day appearance. A source for Priebus told Politico that "the writing was on the wall" when the president didn't defend the chief of staff.

Scaramucci's so-called victory was short-lived because his personal life became a ticking time-bomb just waiting to explode.

Exactly one week after The Mooch took over as communications director, the New York Post dropped a bombshell report: Scaramucci's wife had filed for divorce in early July 2017. Turns out, Mrs. Mooch isn't a fan of her husband's new job and "despises" Trump.

"Deidre has left him and has filed for divorce." a source told Page Six. "She liked the nice Wall Street life and their home on Long Island, not the insane world of D.C. She is tired of his naked ambition, which is so enormous that it left her at her wits' end. She has left him even though they have two children together."

A friend of Scaramucci also said the White House job had affected the marriage. "Deidre is not a fan of Trump, and she hasn't exactly been on board and supportive of Anthony and his push to get back into the White House," the insider said. "Anthony is focusing on his children, his work for the president and the American people. There is nothing more important to him."

But a day later, a new report suggested that the "focusing on his children" part might not have been entirely accurate.

On June 25, 2017, Trump made headlines by turning what should have been a simple speech at the Boy Scouts Jamboree into a controversial political rally, which prompted the Boy Scouts of America to issue an apology. 

What people probably didn't know is that Scaramucci was at that event too. According to Page Six, The Mooch skipped the birth of his second son to be with the president at the jamboree. Four days after the delivery, he'd reportedly not yet met his son.

In Scaramucci's defense, he did send his estranged wife a touching text after the delivery: "Congratulations, I'll pray for our child."

Okay, maybe touching wasn't the right word.

As Scaramucci struggled to get out from underneath the news of his divorce, Arthur Schwartz, a friend of The Mooch who has often been referred to in the press as his publicist/representative, began threatening to leak info on Twitter about Priebus allegedly having a mistress, according to Salon. 

The tweets caught the attention of CNN's Tapper who referred to Schwartz as Scaramucci's publicist, which prompted Schwartz to engage Tapper and threaten to sue CNN for falsely claiming he worked for Scaramucci.

It goes without saying that this is exactly the kind of heat The Mooch didn't need. Schwartz soon erased all of his tweets about Priebus, along with his back and forth with Tapper, and apologized for the whole thing. "I deleted my tweets re @Reince & apologized to him," Schwartz wrote on Twitter. "Pretty sure he's not accepting my apology. Can't blame him. I'm ashamed of what I said."

On Aug. 31, 2017, Scaramucci was fired as communications director at the request of Trump's new chief of staff John Kelly, reported The New York Times. The news came exactly one day after Scaramucci's alleged publicist threatened Priebus. The Mooch became the butt of jokes across the country, but the administration did give him some cover by initially making it sound like he resigned on his own.

"Anthony Scaramucci will be leaving his role as White House Communications Director," Sanders told reporters, according to CNN. "Mr. Scaramucci felt it was best to give chief of staff John Kelly a clean slate and the ability to build his own team. We wish him all the best."

However, it didn't take long for the leaks that had plagued Scaramucci's short time in office to surface, and soon, reports came in that he was "escorted" from the White House. As the story grew, it became clear that The Mooch had not only been axed, but he had essentially dug his own grave.

In a detailed insider account of Scaramucci's firing, Axios reported that Kelly was not pleased with The Mooch's profanity-laced interview with The New Yorker—the one where he launched graphic insults at both Priebus and White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon. Scaramucci had "burned his credibility," an administration source said.

It also didn't help that Bannon was not a fan of The Mooch and allegedly worked behind the scenes to get rid of him, according to Axios. Even though the president initially loved Scaramucci's fiery barbs, rumor had it Trump was growing angry with the increasingly negative press. Trump even started openly joking about the communication director's fate. "What am I going to do with this guy? He's crazy," the president reportedly said.

There's also another factor to consider. The Mooch might've been too good at his real job: getting rid of Priebus.

Despite Scaramucci's short tenure, he was the catalyst for ousting Priebus, which is something that both Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner had been "diligently pushing for," according to Vanity Fair. Could that be the reason they supported hiring The Mooch?

Once Priebus was gone, Kushner and Ivanka did not come to Scaramucci's aid as the negative press piled up. Vanity Fair reported that the situation grew even colder when the Kushner-Trumps stood dutifully behind the president and backed Kelly's new managerial control over the White House, which he started that morning by firing Scaramucci.

If The Mooch had served his purpose, why keep him around?

As if missing the birth of his son, his wife filing for divorce, and losing his job—all in a 10-day span—wasn't bad enough, things got very confusing in the hours after Scaramucci's ouster. The Washington Post reported that the Harvard Law School directory accidentally listed The Mooch as dead in its latest publishing. The mistake prompted outlets such as the New York Post to quickly report that Scaramucci was still very much alive, though his political career? Not so much.

In the wake of Scaramucci's firing, the social media jokes started flying, and actress Kate Hudson scored a viral hit with an Instagram post that riffed on her 2003 romantic comedy How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. The hilarious post replaced Hudson and co-star Matthew McConaughey with Trump and Scaramucci, along with the caption "Box office results are in! The #1 comedy in America!" According to Time, the actress' gag racked up more than 90,000 likes in an hour.

Needless to say, the internet had a field day with Scaramucci's downfall. Nobody probably enjoyed the spectacle more than the man who warned against hiring The Mooch in the first place: Spicey.

Even though Spicer resigned in protest over the administration's decision to hire Scaramucci, Spicer agreed to stick around for a few weeks to help get the communications office in order. That means Spicey got to witness The Mooch's rapid rise and fall unfold in real time, and it kind of seems like he enjoyed the show.

According to Politico, a smiling Spicer seemed "happy" and "in good spirits" on the day Scaramucci was fired. On top of that, Mediaite reported that there's already speculation that Spicer could become communications director. While The New York Times thinks it's unlikely Spicer even wants his old job back, he is sticking around 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. for a while longer, so it's anybody's guess. For the first time ever, it seems the embattled Spicer may be holding all of the cards.

If there's a silver lining to Scaramucci being fired, it's that the news almost completely overshadowed an embarrassing CNN report about The Mooch falling for an email prankster from the UK who pretended to be Priebus and Russia ambassador John Huntsman. It was another humiliating snafu that highlighted Scaramucci's lack of experience and raised serious concerns about cyber-security in the White House.

In the emails, Scaramucci writes to the prankster, who he thinks is Priebus: "You know what you did. We all do. Even today. But rest assured we were prepared. A Man would apologize." After the prankster responds back with "I can't believe you are questioning my ethics!" Scaramucci gives the fake Priebus some literary advice. "Read Shakespeare. Particularly Othello. You are right there. My family is fine by the way and will thrive. I know what you did. No more replies from me."

Things get worse in Scaramucci's exchanges with the fake Hunstman, when he agrees that both Priebus and Bannon's heads need to roll. Yikes! Fortunately for The Mooch, the emails were published after he was fired and became just another wacky footnote in his short tenure instead of a massive scandal.

The day after Scaramucci got booted from the White House, TMZ caught him leaving the Trump hotel in D.C. and peppered him with questions. An unusually low-key Mooch had nothing but kind words for Kelly, despite being allegedly fired by the new chief of staff. However, Scaramucci seemed agitated when asked if he had a chance to say goodbye to Trump, which Death and Taxes chalked up as a "no."

Considering The Mooch was a loyal cheerleader, if he didn't get a chance to say goodbye, that probably stung. It also falls in line with Trump's reluctance to personally fire employees, according to The Atlantic. He prefers to makes things so uncomfortable that people eventually quit on their own, which is ironic given the fact that Trump's most notable catchphrase is "You're fired!"

The president also poured salt in Scaramucci's wounds when he tweeted "A great day at the White House!" on the same day The Mooch was let go. Ouch.

Two days after The Mooch was fired from the White House, he was still talking to the media despite promises to "go dark." In an interview with the Huffington Post, Scaramucci tried to spin his infamous profanity-laced rant to Ryan Lizza of The New Yorker by claiming the two are old family friends, so his words shouldn't have been printed.

"The Lizzas and Scaramuccis have been friends for over 50 years," The Mooch said. "My dad knew his dad from construction, and we were building a personal relationship. Most of what I said was humorous and joking. Legally, it may have been on the record, but the spirit of it was off. And he knew that."

However, when reached for comment, Lizza denied Scaramucci's version of events. "I've only known Anthony in his capacity as a Trump surrogate and then White House communications director. We are not and have never been 'old family friends,' though I think our fathers knew each other, so maybe that's what he's talking about. (The Long Island Italian world in that generation is relatively small.) But again, that would not be a reason to suppress an explosive on-the-record interview."

As details of Scaramucci's firing spread, TMZ reported that his fiery interview with The New Yorker was over concerns that word might get out that Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle had attended a private dinner at the White House with The Mooch, Trump, Sean Hannity, and Fox executive Bill Shine. Turns out, whispers of an affair between Scaramucci and Guilfoyle were building, and he wanted to keep the rumor from spreading. Naturally, that didn't work.

According to Showbiz 411, Scaramucci and Guilfoyle were shopping for apartments in New York shortly a month before his life blew up at the White House. In fact, he tried unsuccessfully to land an apartment in the same building as Guilfoyle. "They didn't understand if he was in the middle of a divorce, or what was going on," says a source. "It seemed like she was his girlfriend and he was getting divorced."

A source for The Mooch spoke to People and attempted to explain the situation. "He asked her if she could look with him because she knows the building so well, just to get her thoughts," explains the source, adding, "She lives in the building and he said, 'Is this a good deal? Is this a good unit? What do you think?' and it was that simple."

Uh huh. But if the rumors of an affair with Guilfoyle are true, it would certainly explain why there are conflicting reports over whether or not Scaramucci has met his second son.

In Scaramucci's interview with the Huffington Post, which he gave a day after leaving the White House, he revealed that he still hadn't seen his newborn son whose birth he missed by attending Trump's ill-fated speech at the Boy Scout Jamboree in West Virginia. Scaramucci's admission contradicted earlier statements from his people that claimed he had met his son within a few days of his birth. According to The Mooch, he was planning on meeting his child, but his estranged wife texted him that she needed space. However, his wife's lawyers denied to the Huffington Post that the text in question was about seeing the baby.

In an interesting wrinkle, a few days later, the San Francisco Gate cited Scaramucci's admission that he hadn't met his son, which prompted a PR firm that claims to represent The Mooch to contact the Gate and claim that the Huffington interview is inaccurate because he "saw his newborn son multiple times in July."

Who's telling the truth? With so many conflicting reports, it's hard to say. And it doesn't help that Scaramucci reportedly has a penchant for contradicting himself.

After Scaramucci's surprisingly confident debut as communications director, he very publicly went off the deep end in his pursuit of White House leakers, which he admitted was because of the growing rumors about The Mooch's alleged affair with Kimberly Guilfoyle. However, while Scaramucci was a big fan of threatening to ax the entire communications office (along with occasional talk of public hangings), he apparently was a big softie.

According to Axios, The Mooch once told staffers about the time he used to own an ice cream and suspected an employee of stealing from him. "Mooch told the staff that for a week, he stuffed the drawer with extra money to prove the guy was stealing. He said the moral of the story was: 'I always find out.' Then someone asked what happened to the guy. Mooch replied that the guy was married to a family member and that he let him go because he's got a big heart like President Trump. 'It's kinda like here,' he said, 'I may end up firing all of you, but I'll help you find a job somewhere else.'"

Apparently, this type of reversal was Scaramucci's M.O. during his short tenure. He'd threaten mass firings then promise to "bring everyone together." Needless to say, it made it difficult to know when The Mooch was telling the truth or just blowing smoke. And it doesn't help that even Scaramucci doesn't seem to take himself seriously.

Barely four days after being fired from the White House, Scaramucci showed signs that he had sense of a humor about his comedically short stint, First, he tweeted an editorial cartoon "mocking the Trump administration's revolving door of ouster staff members," according to New York Daily News, which is pretty significant given The Mooch's outspoken dedication to Trump.

Scaramucci then tweeted a video of Mario Cantone's now internet-famous impersonation of The Mooch on Comedy Central's The President Show. The video showed Cantone's Mooch getting a goodbye kiss from Trump after being fired, which again, is a huge departure from Scaramucci's previous love for all things Trump.

Scaramucci's newfound appreciation for White House parodies is also interesting considering he's reportedly trying to break into Hollywood with a project based on a Trump campaign slogan.

Scaramucci might have claimed he'd be going dark and working on the best version of himself, but almost immediately after getting fired from the White House, The Mooch started making plans to turn his 10 days with Trump into a sitcom or even a movie.

"We've learned a major Hollywood producer has been in touch with Scaramucci to produce a White House version of 'Spin City.' There are 2 working titles — '10 Days in July' and 'Attack of the Swamp Monsters,'" TMZ reports. "The concept is an outsider assuming power in D.C. to the great dismay of longtime political hacks who go straight for the jugular."

In case the message isn't clear, Scaramucci's project essentially blames his short time as communication directors on the "swamp" that Trump promised to "drain" instead of the fact that The Mooch called up a reporter and used very colorful terms while accusing White House officials of putting certain body parts in their mouths. We're not political experts, but we're pretty sure that's never the best move for your first week on the job.

While Scaramucci's short tenure as White House Communications Director probably won't go down in history books (at least, not in a good way), there's no denying he approached the job with genuine zeal. His confidence behind the podium could have been a huge asset to the administration, but those same personality traits put The Mooch in a position he didn't want to be in: taking the limelight away from Trump.

The good news for Scaramucci is that the White House he left behind is never short on scandals. Within hours of being fired, The Mooch's departure was already being overshadowed by reports that Trump had "weighed in" on his son's misleading statement about a questionable meeting with a Russian attorney to obtain information about Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election.

With Scaramucci quickly vanishing from the headlines, that should give him plenty of space to focus on the new goal he shared with TMZ: "Working on being the best person I can be."

As long as it involves still blowing air kisses, we'll be watching to see what the new and improved Mooch does next.