Foul-mouthed Scaramucci lights blue touch paper of White House fireworks
New White House communications director has already picked fights with Trump administration heavyweights Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon.
Donald Trump’s new communications director has exploded smouldering tensions at the White House into a wildfire.
Anthony Scaramucci angrily dared the US president’s chief of staff to deny he was a “leaker” and exposed West Wing backstabbing in language more suited to a gangster movie.
In a pull-no-punches impromptu CNN interview that he said was authorised by Mr Trump, Mr Scaramucci went after chief of staff Reince Priebus in graphic terms.
“The fish stinks from the head down,” he said.
“I can tell you two fish that don’t stink, and that’s me and the president.”
Not even a week into his new job, Mr Scaramucci accused unidentified senior officials of trying to sabotage him and committing an offence by leaking information.
But the personal financial information that he said someone had “leaked” about him had simply been obtained through a public records request.
Then, in an interview published by The New Yorker late on Thursday, an angry Mr Scaramucci accused Mr Priebus of being a “f****** paranoid schizophrenic” and used a vulgar term to suggest White House chief strategist Steve Bannon is an enthusiastic self-publicist.
He also threatened to sack White House staffers who leaked information about a dinner he had with the president.
“They’ll all be fired by me,” Mr Scaramucci told the magazine.
“I fired one guy the other day. I have three to four people I’ll fire tomorrow. I’ll get to the person who leaked that to you.
“Reince Priebus – if you want to leak something – he’ll be asked to resign very shortly.”
But by the end of the day, Mr Scaramucci sounded calmer, though not regretful saying “sometimes I use colourful language”.
He also blamed the reporter, Ryan Lizza.
“I made a mistake in trusting in a reporter,” he tweeted later. “It won’t happen again.”
The president’s senior counsellor Kellyanne Conway had earlier speculated in a Fox News interview that unnamed forces were out to get Mr Scaramucci, saying: “Somebody is trying to get in his way and scare him off.”
“There are leaks and then there are people using the press to shiv each other in the ribs.”
Meanwhile, no-one in the White House championed Mr Priebus – including Mr Priebus himself.
Ms Sanders avoided giving a direct answer when asked whether Mr Trump has confidence in Mr Priebus.
