Trump reportedly loved Anthony Scaramucci's vulgar rants, until they got too much attention

Anthony Scaramucci.
(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

President Trump felt that briefly employed White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci's colorful comments to The New Yorker's Ryan Lizza "were inappropriate for a person in that position," White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday, after new White House Chief of Staff John Kelly had fired Scaramucci with Trump's backing. But Trump did not always feel that way, according to several accounts of Scaramucci's short but dramatic tenure at the White House.

Kelly had refused to even entertain keeping Scaramucci, and one of his first acts after being sworn in was firing the new White House communications director, who came into work unsure what to expect, Politico reports. Scaramucci's downfall began when he accused Kelly's predecessor, Reince Priebus, of leaking his public financial disclosure information and appeared to threaten him with an FBI investigation, then elevated when he called Lizza to demand he name a source, then used vulgar terms to criticize Priebus and White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.