Scaramucci named White House Communications Director
July 21, 2017
President Donald Trump today named Anthony Scaramucci, a 53-year old hedge fund financier from New York City, as his next White House Communications Director.
Scaramucci has been a Trump ally since the campaign: he fundraised for Trump and has been seen frequently on television defending the former business tycoon’s fledgling administration. He will be replacing Mike Dubke, who resigned the head post at communications back in May.
The announcement comes on the heels of a chaotic week for Trump and his Republican Party, as the GOP’s Better Care Reconciliation Act (repealing and replacing Obamacare) looks to be in dire straits, and as Trump looks to shake up his legal team. In the wake of the announcement, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer resigned, holding vast reservations about Scaramucci. Additionally, a Gallup poll released recently puts Trump’s approval rating at 36 percent and disapproval rating at 59 percent, a level only reached by few presidents since Gallup began polling in the early-Truman era and the lowest level of any president during that time only six months into their administration.
According to officials inside the White House, the decision was a blindsiding one to major members of the White House senior staff, namely White House Chief of Staff Reince Preibus and Chief Strategist Steve Bannon.
As staunch a defender as Scaramucci is of President Trump, he lacks experience in the department he is set to lead. This may not become an issue for the administration, but it could also cause problems, especially as scandals continue to plague the Trump camp.
However inexperienced Scaramucci is, his economic experience is unimpeachable. A top hedge fund expert and investment banker who has risen through the ranks of banking conglomerates such as Goldman Sachs, he may be able to advertise Trump’s daring economic agenda.
Scaramucci’s appointment, in essence, boils down to two core characteristics of President Trump. The first is his penchant for unconditional loyalty. Betrayal, or seeming betrayal, is a pet peeve of Trump’s. In a time period in which top GOP officials and Americans are fleeing from the President’s clutches, Scaramucci has remained a Trump loyalist and defender, likely aiding Trump’s decision to give him the nod as communications director. The second core characteristic is his affinity for financials. Trump, though his anti-immigrant rhetoric has raised many eyebrows, is much more of a fiscal conservative than he is a social conservative: President Trump’s experience lies majorly in the economic world, and he may look to economic policy to bail him out of a legislative slump.
If Trump goes to an economic agenda, Scaramucci at the head of communications might work, as the new director’s economic expertise and knack for defending the president’s economic policy may be exactly what Trump needs to shape the message of a sweeping change to tax policy in the United States, a change for which him and his Republican allies in Congress have gunned in this session of Congress.
As Scaramucci walks into the lion’s den and Spicer walks out, it seems that only time can tell the tale of the Trump Administration’s future.
Anthony Scaramucci has been a fabulous asset: Kellyanne Conway
Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Trump, on reports Anthony Scaramucci is being considered for the White House communications director post and President Trump’s first six months in office.