U.S. President Donald Trump’s new communications director exploded the smouldering tensions at the White House into a full-fledged conflagration on Thursday, angrily daring Mr. Trump’s Chief of Staff to deny he’s a “leaker” and exposing West Wing backstabbing in language more suitable to a mobster movie than a seat of presidential stability.
In a pull-no-punches, impromptu CNN interview that he said was authorised by the President, Anthony Scaramucci went after Chief of Staff Reince Priebus in graphic terms. “The fish stinks from the head down,” he said. “I can tell you two fish that don’t stink, and that’s me and the President.”
Not even a week into his new job, Mr. Scaramucci accused unidentified senior officials of trying to sabotage him and committing a felony by leaking information. But the personal financial information that he said someone had “leaked” about him had simply been obtained through a public records request.
Then in an expletive-laden interview published by The New Yorker late on Thursday, an angry Mr. Scaramucci accused Mr. Priebus of being "a [expletives].
He also used a graphic sexual reference to make the point that he believes White House chief strategist Steve Bannon used Trump’s election win to burnish his own reputation.
No regret
“They’ll all be fired by me,” Mr. Scaramucci told the magazine. “I fired one guy the other day. I have three to four people I’ll fire tomorrow. I’ll get to the person who leaked that to you. Reince Priebus if you want to leak something he’ll be asked to resign very shortly.”
By day’s end Mr. Scaramucci sounded calmer, though not regretful.
“I sometimes use colorful language. I will refrain in this arena but not give up the passionate fight for realDonaldTrump’s agenda. #MAGA,” he tweeted. The tag at the end stands for Mr. Trump’s “Make America Great Again”.
