Scaramucci deep-sixed; can things get any worse in the White House?

July 31, 2017 • 2:26 pm

The Washington Post just reported that, after only ten days on the job, Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci has been fired—at the request of Chief of Staff John Kelly (and surely with Drumpf’s approval).

Scaramucci’s brief tenure in the role had been marked by turmoil as he feuded publicly with former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus. Scaramucci’s arrival at the White House prompted former press secretary Sean Spicer to resign in protest.

The abrupt decision signals that Kelly is moving quickly to assert control over the West Wing, which has been characterized by interpersonal disputes and power struggles during Trump’s six months in office.

The retired Marine general, who was sworn in Monday morning, was brought into the White House in the hope that he will bring military-style disciple to Trump’s staff. He has been fully empowered by the president to make significant changes to the organization, White House officials and outside advisers said.

Can the chaos of the Trump administration—the kneejerk policy decisions, the ever-changing parade of officials, the unhinged tweets, and the failure to do anything substantive, much less salubrious—get any worse? I lived through the Nixon and Reagan administrations, and have seen lots of incompetence and lies in the White House, but nothing’s even come close to this. I just hope that some of those who voted for Trump are starting to see what a monster they created, or rather put into power.

129 thoughts on “Scaramucci deep-sixed; can things get any worse in the White House?”

  2. “In the future, everybody will work in the White House for 15 minutes” – Andy Warhol

    3. There was a lot of let-me-go/do-not-let-him-go ambivalence with the decision.

  5. Scaramucci has been fired—at the request of Chief of Staff John Kelly (and surely with Drumpf’s approval).

    Don’t call me Shirley.

  6. Unfortunately, I saw a representative from ‘Trump Country’ on one of the Sunday morning News programs. He was a Right-wing Talk Radio guy from Cincinnati and kept referring to 45 as ‘The Trumpster’. His folks were thrilled with the man. Why? “Gasoline is $1.99 a gallon. The stock market is at new highs. Unemployment is near 4% so we’re now down to those folks who won’t work if you put a gun to their head, and they just opened a new metallurgical factory in our county. Those folks on the East Coast have no idea what matters.”

    It was very eye-opening. I fear that 45 will be in office for 8 years unless the good economic news (primarily a result of the previous administration’s work and some luck) changes. We forget that pocketbook issues are stronger than anything we see in this eternal circus/soap opera of a WHite House.

    1. The economic figures your Drumpster is parroting are statistical noise, for starters — and the trendlines are neither predicative nor sustainable. There will be ups and downs…

      …but the overall trend with a bull in the china shop is going to be down.

      There’s a flip side to that, of course. Anybody who’s read 1984 is well aware of how the proles can be made to cheer a reduction in the price of chocolate to $4 per one-ounce piece from last week’s outrageously high price of $3 per two-ounce piece.

      Nevertheless, Der Drumpfenfurher’s absolute disloyalty to all those around him, even his staunchest and oldest and most productive supporters, is going to be his undoing, perhaps sooner rather than later. This current shakeup in progress may still include the firing of Jeff Sessions, which would trigger instant Republican congressional revolt (as they’ve made painfully clear). Even lacking something that dramatic and immediate, all his bridges are already on fire, and he keeps reaching for the gas can to douse the flames….

      This is not a good thing. All things considered, it’s probably better for the infection to run its course swiftly than to linger…but the disease is dire, indeed. No good has come out of this, and only ill will come for the foreseeable future.

      Cheers,

      b&

      >

      1. The steady up market indicates that investors have been ignoring Trump. They think that a regulatory rollback attributable to Republican leadership in the House, the Senate and the White House will be good for business.

        And it will be, right up until the crash.

        1. After the crash, too — that’s when the real payoff comes: the bailout.

          But there’s pretty good reason to think that the window of opportunity for this Congress to get anything done is already closed. Repealing Obamacare wasn’t merely their top priority, it was the low-hanging fruit. And the keystone in their tax “reform” package.

          They’ve been willing to put up with Drumpf so far in the hopes that they could use him to slam through all their pipe dreams, but that’s clearly not happening.

          What they can agree on, and by 98% margins, is to give Drumpf the middle finger on Russian sanctions. Especially given the timing of that vote — literally at the same time as Drumpfcare was going down in flames — historians may well cite that as a trial balloon for impeachment.

          There’re a lot more shoes not yet dropped with respect to the “Russia thing,” and it’s a statistical certainty that we don’t have long to wait, and that the next shoe will be even bigger. Putin’s diplomatic retaliation probably means that he’s cutting off Drumpf, which means the next shoe could even be that “golden shower” tape. The time is getting ripe, and people may well be calculating that there’s not that much left to gain by drawing it out any further….

          b&

          >

          1. Putin is surely pissed that his grand plan of making Trump president as to get the sanctions lifted backfired.

          2. Sanctions are a side game. Wreaking havoc in the States was and will always be Putin’s primary goal…which is why I’m sorta expecting this to all come to an head sooner rather than later.

            Which would be more chaotic: waiting for the midterms, followed either by impeachment in the case of an increasingly-likely Democratic win or the continued drip-drip of Drumpf if the Republicans can maintain control…or scandal so terrible that the Republicans are forced to eat their own now, before the midterms?

            The least chaotic course is Drumpf and the Republicans maintaining an uneasy alliance for the full term. And with easing of sanctions off the table, there’s nothing for Putin to gain from such.

            Next is impeachment after a Democratic midterm victory. But that’s basically just a rehash of Watergate. A mere seven years after Nixon’s resignation, we had Reagan in the White House, and the Soviet Union collapsed not long after.

            But for the Republicans to be forced to pull the trigger on Drumpf, themselves? Not only would their brand be tarnished beyond all recognition even by their own base, it’s unlikely the Democrats would have the political acumen to be able to capitalize on it. Chaos to the max. Could even spark a civil war, come to think of it. Pure win for Putin — who might even make offers of assistance, such as polling place observers for a special election….

            b&

            >

        2. Exactly. And I find it curious that the vast majority of Americans don’t own stocks, yet they see a record high Dow Jones as somehow affecting their lives in a positive way.

    2. I thought his base was supposed to be people who feel left behind in the new economy. If they’re actually pleased with how things are going for them, then they’re not who we’ve been led to believe they are.

        1. Those are all guys who are doing an amazing job and being recognized more and more.

    2. The destroyer-manipulator in Chief takes over the United States, wrecking as much of the civilian services of the State as he can and smoozing to his international business partners in corruption – the Russian and Saudi oligarchs. What passes for a mind puffs away tweets all the while. He still hasn’t appointed thousands of officials below cabinet level in the State Department and elsewhere he’s supposed to appoint on taking office.

  8. Let’s see if the pending sale of Scaramucci’s hedge fund to a Chinese conglomerate (which is allegedly overpaying for influence) falls through. That would be telling.

    2. That sale requires the approval of Steve Mnuchin’s munchkins at the Treasury Department. Mooch figured the Donald would lean on them if Scaramucci were working in the White House. That was his play in taking the communications-director job.

  10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaramouche

    Scaramuccia (literally “little skirmisher”), also known as Scaramouche or Scaramouch, is a stock clown character of the Italian commedia dell’arte (comic theatrical arts). The role combined characteristics of the zanni (servant) and the Capitano (masked henchman). Usually attired in black Spanish dress and burlesquing a don, he was often beaten by Harlequin for his boasting and cowardice.

    One feature of the character, in Punch and Judy, is losing his head quickly.

        1. Similar titles in 1923, 1952, 1963, 1976. It appears at least the first 3 are based on the Sabatini novel. Not sure about the 1976 version.

    1. Too much testosterone in bull[y] pits.

      Kelly’s mission impossible, if he will accept it, is to institute a typical administrative pecking order. I read somewhere that Nixon, a problematic recluse I take it, had military chiefs of staff as well.

      1. Not so. Nixon’s chief of staff was the famous (infamous) H.R. Haldeman, a foremer advertising executive sometimes known as “Nixon’s son-of-a-bitch”. Involved in Watergate. Spent 18 months at Lompoc federal pen.

        1. There was still something military about Haldeman’s personality. (I once spent a week guiding him and his family in the Ecuadorian jungle.)

      2. General Al Haig was there at the end, to help break the bad news to Nixon. Nixon’s hapless successor, Gerald Ford, dumped him a month later.

        Haig then recrudesced briefly in the ’80s, as Reagan’s first Secretary of State — long enough to jump the presidential line of succession set out in the 25th Amendment by proclaiming “I’m in charge here!” after Reagan got shot by John Hinckley.

    2. Yeah I think that’s the most crazy part of this story. He takes a job. A week later his wife files for divorce citing his “power-hungry” behavior in that job. Then he gets fired days later.

    1. Nope. Mooch wasn’t even technically a federal employee yet. His official start date is (was) August 15th. 🙂

  14. I think your President could appoint a cartoon character to his cabinet and I wouldn’t even blink.

  15. There may be no statistical significance – yet – but maybe “Trump-divorce” will become a thing. Other than Scaramucci [https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2017/07/31/scaramucci-deep-sixed-can-things-get-any-worse-in-the-white-house/ ] I think I read this weekend about another White House divorce citing Trump-licking as reason.

  16. Leadership really does set the tone so I’m not surprised Trump’s White House is full of egotistical, sychophantic powerplays that cause constant interruption.

  18. I hope the firing of Scaramucci by Kelly Isn’t a sign that he can actually control Trump’s erratic behavior. A slightly “better” Trump would be worshiped by relieved Republicans who are presently in a state of chaotic terror. I don’t think that this will happen, but if it did, the chances of passing their awful agenda would increase greatly!

      1. Is Kelly a Trump admirer? Why would he (seemingly so easily) agree to enter that hornets’ nest?

        Trump was seemingly in favor of the Mooch. Until he apparently wasn’t. Easy come, easy go.

        Perhaps Kelly, having been a U.S. Marine, wishes to continue to be of service to the country. At the same time, after thirty- plus years in the military (and drawing a reasonable retirement), he may be easily-enough inclined to resign if Trump messes with him.

        This firing of the Mooch has happened so quickly that I have to wonder if the Mooch’s firing was required by Kelly before Kelly would agree to take the job. Did Trump anticipate that? Was it out of the blue? Re: Trump’s complaining about why Sessions didn’t tell him he’d recuse himself over Russia. The Mooch could similarly ask him why he’d hire him in the first place if he were going to fire him less than two weeks later.

        2. Is Kelly a Trump admirer? Why would he (seemingly so easily) agree to enter that hornets’ nest?

          I suspect that as a former marine, he’s just trying to make the best of the orders he’s been given. Boss says he wants to promote you into a new position, you take the promotion…even if you may not want it.

          I think Kelly will make the WH stronger. But I suspect he won’t last the calendar year himself. He seems to be an honorable guy, and sooner or later Trump’s going to demand he do something corrupt or blatantly lie about something. Kelly’s going to say no, and then Trump will start looking for a new Chief of Staff.

        3. As Mooch himself said, (I paraphrase) there are people in this administration who believe it is their job to save the country from this president…

  19. I sometimes read books about the Mafia. This guy, Scaramoucci,was a goombah who quickly got too big for his britches. He probably wouldn’t have fared so well, as to just being fired or resigned, had he been dealing with those dudes.

  20. I’m still trying to understand why this John Kelly took the job. I hear he had been asked several times but refused until now. 4 star retired Marine general who was head of homeland security. What the hell he would have in common with Trump? Other than they are both humans living in America.

    1. Probably Trump promised him great autonomy and little interference. He’s a fool if he believed it.

      1. Really. I question the judgement of anyone who would take a high level job in this administration, especially at this time. Trump will drag his reputation into the mud like he has so many others’.

        1. I agree. But Kelly, as an ex-military man, may have felt that he *should* take the job if asked by the President.
          Still, this (Kelly’s appointment, not the departure of Tony the Moocher) means that Trump now has to find and get confirmed a new Secretary of DHS; and who would want a cabinet position these days?

          1. I suspect Elaine Duke will be “acting” Secretary for some time, if the decision is left up to Trump.

            Of course with Kelly in the COS position, if Trump, Kelly and/or Duke have someone they like for the position, Kelly himself might be able to talk Congress into fast tracking the confirmation process.

            So I can see it happening, if Kelly is sufficiently motivated. But I give slightly better odds to it not happening for a while.

          1. The “sources” in this would be rivals in the White House already gunning for the fresh meat.

            Kelly would basically have to fire everybody and bring in an entirely new team of his own loyalists in order to have even an hypothetical hope of success at this point — and who imagines for a second that Drumpf would let him?

            …and who’s left after Kelly who’d be willing to jump into the fire?

            b&

            >

          2. Or perhaps the source is close to Comey. I doubt either will confirm or deny it, but my guess is that it’s probably true considering the two worked together undoubtedly on counter-terrorism effort coming from south of the border. It will be interesting to see what comes of it. Trump could really go off the deep end.

            Tune in tomorrow!

          3. Oh, he went off the deep end more than half a century ago.

            He’s gone from reasonable nervousness at stepping into such a big position to apprehension that it’s harder than he anticipated to fear that he’s not up to the job to panic as the walls are starting to crumble around him. Now, he’s beginning the mindless thrashing stage, which is likely to be spectacular but relatively short-lived.

            It’s possible he’ll grab a lifeline and catch his breath. But that’s probably entirely Putin’s call at this point, and Putin just sent up a rather big “FUCK YOU!” flag, so I’d be willing to bet a suitable beverage (but no more) that this is the beginning of the end.

            Cheers,

            b& >

        3. Watching Kelly become Trump’s chief of staff is like watching two people get married who are totally unsuited. One makes silent, mental bets on how long it will last.

    2. This makes some interesting background reading on Kelly, albeit from the choir – so to speak [http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/nov/27/john-kelly-trump-cabinet-mention-a-border-security/] Kelly’s worldview aligns well with Trump and Bannon and the idea that the US is in a struggle with powers that are trying to destroy it. But I think it’s only a matter of time before he falls out with the gropenfuhrer, who is incapable of controlling himself.

      1. Yes, I think you may be on to something. He has this view of the U.S. against the terrorist and the endless war to be fought. His view is too extreme on this point and may be very narrow due to his past and the fact that he lost a son in Iraq. But hell, he is not the Sec. of Defense, he is now chief of staff. Sometimes these guys just spend too many years in the military. He is the same age as me, one month younger and he avoided the draft by joining the marines. He also got out but then went back in as an officer. I cannot believe he will last long working for Trump.

    3. Kelly’s a hardliner on immigration, though I’d like to think what finally convinced him to take the job was a patriotic sense of duty to the nation.

      I’ve been leery about having military officers in high positions of civilian political authority ever since seeing Seven Days in May as a kid. But I think there are a lot of us Americans who’re hoping that Generals Kelly and McMaster (in the White House) and Mattis (at the Pentagon) can box the Donald in before he does anything truly terrible and crazy, especially when it comes to foreign policy and the exercise of military power.

      1. I also have my doubts with the military types and Trump seems to have this fascination with lots of stars. And yet he knows nothing about the military. The fact that he picked an oil executive as his Sec. of State is just more than strange. What does he know of diplomacy and for that matter, what do generals know about it? The special council should hurry up and get something good on this guy and take him out.

        1. What Trump knows about the military is that rich kids in the Sixties could dodge the draft when their daddies hired shady doctors to write bogus letters claiming they had spurious bone spurs in their feet.

      2. I fear that Trump may think a “splendid little war” with North Korea might just do the trick to divert attention from his ever accumulating woes. In more than any other arena, this is where the generals will have to restrain him.

        1. It’s Iran I’m worried about. Just when the moderates won their election in Iran, Trump dumps on them and threatens war. What a great way to betray the moderates and fuel the extremist theocrats. This will not end well.

  21. In a weird way I’m sad. Like Trump’s foul mouthed, poorly behaved lawyers, I was hoping the Mooch would provide me with moments of shame, dishonor, and laughs in the coming months. And now he’s gone as quickly as he came, leaving a crater of swear words and weirdness in his wake.

  23. Arrivederci, Scaramucci!

    Gen. Kelly’s got a lot of leverage around the West Wing right about now, way I see it. If he were to spend a few weeks’ time there, throw up his hands, and say no-can-do, Republicans would have to think about pulling the Trump administration’s feeding tube. The Donald knows that. (Trump’s a public-policy imbecile, but he has an animal instinct for wielding leverage. He’ll let Kelly have a free hand for the time being, unless he starts getting too much public credit.)

  25. I guffawed when I first read this news earlier. It was just my instinctual reaction. What else can one do at this point?

    Part of me wants Kelly to actually bring order to this farce of an administration, but the other part of me wants things to proceed as they have so far. I’m not sure which is better for the country: for this administration to be stabilized to whatever extent it can be, or for it to continue spiraling the drain in the hope that it becomes a lame duck presidency within its first year.

    1. Step one is for Trump to fail, fail hard, and drag Republicans down with him.

      Step two is for Dems to split off into liberals and regressives, and for the regressives to have their butts handed to them.

    2. It’s all fun and games until Trump barricades himself in the White House residence with the nuclear football and the biscuit containing the launch codes.

  26. ‘I just hope that some of those who voted for Trump are starting to see what a monster they created’ The ones who remain convinced are the ones that see the current goings on as a good thing 🙂 There are a few people like that.

  27. His *official* start date was 15 Aug. Apparently Scaramucci managed to bend time in order to get fired before he’d even started. Quite the feat.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/31/us/politics/anthony-scaramucci-white-house.html

    Trump sure picks his guys well.

    “…I’m going to surround myself only with the best and most serious people…”

    Speaking of which, he *still* hasn’t been able to actually get people to fill empty jobs in the white house.

    Currently only 50 of the 575 posts that require SEnate approval have actually been approved; a further 165 have been nomiated but not confirmed; and a whacking 357 have not even been nominated!!!

    The Trump white house is a total f***ing disaster!

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-administration-appointee-tracker/database/

    2. “This administration is running like a fine-tuned machine.”

      — Donald Trump, at his only full-fledged White House press conference.

  28. I recall shortly after Trump won but before he took office and was announcing his staff picks, people were quickly noticing that the man who ran on a platform of “drain the swamp” was loading up his administration with swamp fish.

    Apologists had an answer for this though. What Trump was supposedly doing was emulating the famous Elliot Ness, assembling his own group of Untouchables who were selected not for spotless moral and ethical integrity, but for personal loyalty, as that was the only way to pursue the greater good.

    Well I’ve taken immense joy in watching that particular bit of idiotic apologism flush itself down the toilet with the constant staff upheavals.

    1. Yeah, that ranks right up there for hypocrisy with his recent “Made in America” week (this, from the man whose chi-chi clothing line is manufactured in third-world sweat shops, and who imports guest workers to staff at his Mar-a-Lago resort).

  29. Is everyone tired of all the winning yet? Winning the campaign to make Nixon look like a great statesman in comparison. 🙂

  30. CNN headline on my phone says that Kelly has full control over everybody at the White House, including Kushner, Ivanka, and Bannon.

    It’s pretty much guaranteed that that was one of Kelly’s conditions for accepting the job.

    But it should be obvious to anybody with half a brain that Kelly doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell in a confrontation with at least the first two of those three.

    And that Kelly is being cast as having control over those three…well, whether or not there’s any mindfulness behind any of this, it’s damned obvious that he’s being set up for failure, and in spectacular fashion.

    b&

    1. Yes, I can hear it now. I’m going to tell daddy, and that’s just Kushner.

    1. Drosophila Scaramuccans — pretty sure that falls within our host’s area of expertise. 🙂

  32. Salon has posted some beautiful tw**ts on Scaramucci’s firing.
    The best, in my opinion, by “Eugene Gu, MD”, goes: “He got hired, divorced, had a baby, and fired in 10 days. Like a fruit fly. #Scaramucci”

  35. One of my friends said: “I’ve had zits that lasted longer than Scaramucci.”

  36. My take is that Trump may be mentally ill or is developing dementia. I am leaning toward the latter, as evidenced in part by his seeming inability to speak ad lib in complete sentences or say anything substantive. I’ve watched interviews he did in his 40s and he is much more coherent grammatically than he is now.

  37. Mr Trump as others have noted is treating the running of the WH as a business. All CEO go through a processs of hiring and firing in the first year till the CEO gets the most efficient team.
    Nobody objects when a giant corporation does this so why is it different when it happens at the WH?
    After all hundreds of thousands of Government and State employees are not effected in any way and get on with their daily jobs, whilst the Senate and the House carry on with passing legislation and bickering regardless.

    1. “Nobody objects when a giant corporation does this so why is it different when it happens at the WH?”

      Yep, apparently many if not most U.S. human resources/capital have no problem with tyrannies so long as they are PRIVATE.

      1. To be fair, I don’t think the boards of very many publicly-traded companies would put up with the likes of Drumpf in a C-level position for very long. His aimless management style coupled with his shameless nepotism and favoritism and promotion of factionalism…well, it inevitably leads to exactly the sort of chaos we’re witnessing in the White House right now, usually in short order…and it’s absolutely disastrous to profit margins.

        Maybe they’d do it as part of an hostile takeover in order to reduce payroll counts and in preparation of wiping the slate clean for their own people…but, even then, the tyrant would just be a tool, and a temporary one at that.

        Honestly?

        Pretty much everybody left cheering for the Resident is either a sheep desperate for a stern shepherd to tell them what to do, even if that means being led to the slaughter…or is a wolf salivating at the thought of stealing some sheep away from the idiot shepherd.

        Pro tip: if you’re still a Drumpf supporter and you’re not calculatingly aware that you’re one of the latter, you’re one of the former, whether or not you realize it. Especially if you think it’s great that Drumpf is telling everybody else what to do….

        Cheers,

        b&

        >

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