The Trump administration on Friday officially announced that Anthony Scaramucci—a former Goldman Sachs executive who describes himself simply as an “American entrepeneur”—will be the new White House communications director.
At an afternoon briefing, Scaramucci spoke with reporters for the first time and announced that Sarah Huckabee Sanders will be taking over as White House press secretary in the wake of Sean Spicer’s resignation earlier in the day. Spicer, according to reports, resigned from his post at least partially due to Trump’s decision to bring Scaramucci on board to lead the communication’s team.
Not widely known, here are at least a few things you should know about Scaramucci, including a few highlights from Friday’s briefing.
In tweet back in February 2012—which has since been deleted—Scaramucci referred to Trump as “odd” and said he has “no judgement.” During a segment on Fox Business in 2015, he referred to Trump as a “hack politician” who was “un-American.” He also said, “I don’t like the way he talks about women.”
“The Mooch” also told Donald Trump to “bring it” after calling him “an inherited-money dude from Queens County.”
“I’ll tell you who he’s gonna be president of, you can tell Donald I said this: the Queens County Bullies Association,” Scaramucci added.
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Scaramucci worked at Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers before establishing his own hedge fund, SkyBridge Capital, in 2005. On Wall Street he was known by the nickname “The Mooch,” and he’s been criticized for shady hedge fund practices and his self-promotion habits.
Reportedly, no one wanted Trump to hire “The Mooch.” Top Trump administration officials told The Daily Beast they were “worried that the Scaramucci hiring would perpetuate the notion of ‘amateur hour’ in the West Wing.”
of comments he’s made in support of gun control, though some evidence remains:
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