Anthony Scaramucci measures time in 'Mooches'

Anthony Scaramucci is living in his own dimension.

In the short-lived White House communications director's world, time is measured in "Mooches:" Spans of 11 days, like the length of time he spent working for President Trump. And that's far from the only out-there idea Scaramucci shared with The Atlantic in an interview published Thursday.

A Mooch is defined as a "nonscientific term for a unit of time equal to 11 days, the length of Scaramucci's White House employment," The Atlantic writes. Its first documented use came from White House aides following Scaramucci's departure, but as he revealed in his Atlantic interview, Scaramucci uses the term too. Trump's Communications Director and Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham "has lasted way more 'Mooches' than me," Scaramucci notes, but added "I still have one over on her. I've done one more press conference than her."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Scaramucci also shared his slightly delusional plan for knocking Trump off the 2020 ticket, which earned him a streak of publicity in the past few weeks. He wants to "hit [Trump] so hard that we knock down his poll numbers" from a current 40 percent approval rating to "the low 30s or high 20s," Scaramucci told The Atlantic. Trump will then be so embarrassed that "like Lyndon Johnson, he doesn’t run," Scaramucci continued. He then praised himself for his recent wave of Trump criticism, saying that it "takes a tremendous amount of gumption and courage to speak up and stand for the truth in a society right now."

Find the whole interview at The Atlantic.