Less than a week into the job, White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci managed to accuse a BBC presenter of elitism, call the people of Washington backstabbers, and compare President Trump’s effort to repeal Obamacare to Lincoln’s move to abolish slavery.
In an interview withBBC Newsnight, the Mooch covered topics ranging from cheeseburgers to trade deals. Throughout, he unwaveringly defended the President, calling Trump variably a “remarkably loyal guy,” a tough person “in a good way,” and noting that he “loves” the President’s personality.
On Trump’s communications style, Scaramucci remarked that he and the President are perhaps a little less “subtle and polite” than the British. They are not backstabbers, they’re “front-stabbers”—unlike others in Washington who say one thing to your face and mean another. Trump says “the things to people’s faces what he actually means,” Scaramucci said, which he called “good leadership.”
On the likelihood of a U.K.-U.S. Trade deal, Scaramucci said it would “100%” happen, noting that Trump “loves the United Kingdom.”
“Think about the special relationship that we’ve had since the inception of this great nation,” he said, perhaps overlooking the war that forged it.
Calling the United States a “disruptive startup.” Scaramucci explained that the country was founded by a group of “rich guys” who got together and decided to break away and start a new country. He contended that Trump’s presidency is seeking to “hack the political system” and bring the U.S. “Back to its roots of disruption” to take care of the American people.
Although Scaramucci was unable to comment on chlorine-washed chicken—a story that recently dominated British media—he managed to get through most of the interview without a hitch until he accused presenter Emily Maitlis of being “a little bit elitist” during an exchange about Trump and the press reaction to his ongoing Russia scandal. (He later apologized.)
Twitter users have been calling for actor Mario Cantone, of Sex and the City fame, to play Scaramucci on Saturday Night Live following Melissa McCarthy’s prominent turn as Scaramucci’s predecessor Sean Spicer. We’ll see what the show does with this exchange.