Anthony Scaramucci is off to an inauspicious start as White House communications director as his debut on Sunday morning television revealed the difficulty of taming an operation dictated at every turn by President Trump.
Scaramucci, a wealthy New York investor with no previous experience as a professional political operative, has lamented the failure of the White House communications staff to steer media coverage away from a West Wing in constant upheaval and keep it trained on Trump’s agenda.
Yet Scaramucci, who doesn’t officially take charge until Aug. 15, found himself caught in the same trap during a round of interviews on Sunday’s high-profile public affairs television programs that has dogged this White House from Day 1.
Trump’s legislative priorities are always subordinated to his obsession with defending his personal brand and fighting perceived attacks on the legitimacy of his November victory.
So, just as departing White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer before did before him, Scaramucci was compelled to answer for Trump’s Saturday morning tweetstorm of complaints focused on the federal investigation into Russian meddling instead of talking domestic or foreign policy.
At one point, Scaramucci told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” that a prominent individual who would remain anonymous had grave doubts about whether Russia meddled in the 2016 election, which is the consensus conclusion of the U.S. intelligence community.
Turns out, the anonymous individual was Trump, as Scaramucci conceded when pressed by Tapper to reveal his source.
“You know, somebody said to me yesterday — I won’t tell you who — that if the Russians actually hacked this situation and spilled out those emails, you would have never seen it. You would have never had any evidence of them, meaning that they’re super confident in their deception skills and hacking,” Scaramucci said.
Interjected Tapper: “Well, you’re making a lot of assertions here. I don’t know who this anonymous person is.”
Responded Scaramucci, clearly frustrated at the direction of the conversation: “How about it was — how about it was the president, Jake? … And, he basically said to me, hey, you know, this is; maybe they did it. Maybe they didn’t do it.”
It was much the same on the rest of the Sunday show circuit, although Trump insiders — and the president — were probably quite pleased with Scaramucci’s showing in the pressure cooker.
Scaramucci has been an articulate, confident voice on television as a surrogate for Trump since before the inauguration. He has a keen understanding of who Trump is and what he wants. His relationship with the political press in New York and Washington has been firm, but easy-going and not overly combative.
These qualities were on display Sunday morning as Scaramucci, a veteran Republican campaign bundler with a history of espousing liberal views, made the rounds to discuss his new role, announced just Friday.
But also evident were the myriad challenges that await Scaramucci that tripped up Spicer, who resigned rather than work under him, and the first White House communications director, Michael Dubke, who resigned several weeks ago. The position has been vacant ever since.
Trump tweets at all hours and holds expansive, candid interviews with reporters; often without alerting his staff, rarely limiting his remarks to the issues that helped propel his election — whether that’s repealing Obamacare, rebuilding infrastructure,or fighting radical Islamic terrorism.
In 16 Saturday tweets, eight were gripes about the news media or the Russia investigation, two focused on healthcare, and the remainder on the christening of a new aircraft carrier and accomplishments during his first six months in office.
It was more of the same Sunday afternoon, with Trump tweeting in succession: “As the phony Russian Witch Hunt continues, two groups are laughing at this excuse for a lost election taking hold, Democrats and Russians!” And, then: “It’s very sad that Republicans, even some that were carried over the line on my back, do very little to protect their President.”
No White House communications strategy, no matter how modern, forward thinking, and attuned to the president’s peculiarities can penetrate the din of a scandal-driven news when the progenitors of that scandalous news are the direct statements of the president himself.
At least not, as Scaramucci has said, if the goal is to get the message out beyond Trump’s base and begin altering perceptions of him for voters disenchanted by his controversial tweets and combative behavior. On Sunday, Scaramucci got a taste of what awaits him.
