By MAGGIE HABERMAN, MICHAEL D.
© 2017 New York Times News Service
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Monday removed Anthony Scaramucci from his position as communications director, the White House announced, ousting him just days after Scaramucci unloaded a crude verbal tirade against other senior members of the president’s senior staff.
“Anthony Scaramucci will be leaving his role as White House Communications Director,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said in a statement. “Mr. Scaramucci felt it was best to give Chief of Staff John Kelly a clean slate and the ability to build his own team. We wish him all the best.”
Scaramucci’s abrupt removal came just 10 days after the wealthy New York financier was brought on to the West Wing staff, a move that convulsed an already chaotic White House and led to the departures of Sean Spicer, the former press secretary, and Reince Priebus, the president’s first chief of staff.
In a Twitter message just before 5:30 a.m. Monday, just hours before the announcement about Scaramucci, Trump insisted that there has been “No WH chaos!”
The decision to remove Scaramucci became public as Kelly, who replaced Priebus as the top adviser in the White House, began his first day in charge of the White House staff. He told aides gathered in early-morning staff meetings that he intended to impose a new sense of order and operational discipline that had been absent under his predecessor.
Scaramucci had boasted about reporting directly to the president, not the chief of staff. But the decision to remove him came at Kelly’s request, the people said.
It was not clear whether Scaramucci, who is known informally as “The Mooch,” will remain at the White House in another position.
While Kelly’s objection was the decisive factor in Scaramucci’s departure, people close to the decision said that Trump had quickly soured on the New York-bred former hedge fund manager.
Trump was initially pleased by Scaramucci’s harsh remarks. But over the weekend, after speaking with his family and Kelly, the president began to see the brash actions of his subordinate as a political liability and potential embarrassment, according to two people familiar with his thinking.
