Anthony Scaramucci says Donald Trump brought him into the White House in July 2017 after deciding to remove Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon. Trump then told him he would be communications director, ending a brief run that lasted 11 days.
Scaramucci said Trump had first offered him a job as director of the Office of Public Liaison in the previous January, but Priebus blocked it. By July 2017, Scaramucci said he was warning Trump that he would have problems with Priebus and Bannon.
White House call on 19 July 2017
On 19 July 2017, a White House operator told Scaramucci to hold for the president. Trump asked him, “What are you doing tomorrow for lunch?” Scaramucci said he replied, “Call me if you ever need help with those bad guys.”
Scaramucci described himself as a traditional moderate Republican type with ties to Ivanka and Jared Kushner. That helped place him inside a White House split into separate camps, with Priebus and Bannon trying to keep him out while Trump moved him in.
Trump’s DC hotel meeting
Trump later asked the White House operations guy what office was open in the West Wing. When the aide said Mike Dubke had resigned as communications director, Trump told Scaramucci, “You’re going to be comms director.” Scaramucci said his first reaction was, “I can’t be comms director.”
Scaramucci said he checked into Trump’s DC hotel before returning to the White House the next morning. He also said Priebus and Bannon offered him ambassadorships, including Paris, while telling him he could not come to the White House; he said, “I basically told them to go fuck themselves.”
Priebus and Bannon opposition
The account shows how quickly the personnel fight narrowed to one choice: Trump either kept the existing gatekeepers in place or moved Scaramucci into the communications post anyway. He chose Scaramucci, and that left the internal dispute unresolved even as the appointment was made.
What remains in view from Scaramucci’s account is the speed of the decision and the resistance around it. The sequence runs from a blocked January offer, to a July phone call, to a communications director job, to a tenure of 11 days.
