Anthony Scaramucci, who in only 10 days as White House communications director became a topic of national intrigue, is leaving his role, the office of the White House press secretary announced in a statement Monday afternoon.
“Anthony Scaramucci will be leaving his role as White House Communications Director,” the statement read. “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.”
Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, during an afternoon press briefing, said that Scaramucci does not have another role in the administration at this time.
Scaramucci was given the job Friday, July 21, and by Thursday, July 27, became something of a national laughingstock when The New Yorker reported his profanity-laced conversation with the magazine’s Washington correspondent the night before.
He was hired by President Donald Trump to take charge of a communications operation in disarray, and his hiring coincided with the departure of White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer.
Scaramucci, in his conversation with The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza, was extremely critical of White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon and predicted, correctly, that then-Chief of Staff Reince Priebus would be removed from his position. Following the publication of Lizza’s article, it became an open question in Washington whether Scaramucci would keep his job.
At the Politicon conference last weekend, longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone said that Scaramucci should absolutely stick around as communications director. Jason Miller, who was originally tapped as communications director before stepping aside, argued that Scaramucci would be a great asset to the White House and would be a much better communicator of Trump’s thinking.
Dan Pfeiffer, who served as communications director during President Barack Obama’s administration, teased Scaramucci on Twitter after the news broke. “Unfortunately for the Mooch, the minimum tenure to get invited to the annual WH Comms Directors Reunion is 3 weeks,” he wrote.
