There is one last resort for former Trump administration staffers who are worried that their ties to a twice-impeached president could cost them future employment.
A string of disgraced former aides are cashing in on their notoriety by selling bespoke video greetings for up to $200 a pop on the website Cameo.
Customers pay to send birthday wishes, pep talks, or roasts to friends and loved ones.
“It’s me, the former White House communications director, Anthony Scaramucci. The Mooch,” runs the opening to a video roast for one customer.
“Because you smell bad and you kill squirrels, and because your grandfather invented the industrial forklift, you are banned for one Mooch, which you know is 11 days.”
Scaramucci famously lasted 10 days at the White House before being caught on tape with a profanity-laced tirade against colleagues. (Scaramucci insists it was 11 days. “Don’t say 10, it hurts my feelings,” runs his marketing blurb.)
Hey all! Want me to record a personalized video shout-out for someone special in your life? Check me out on Cameo! https://t.co/W6v0TclA3C
— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) August 1, 2019
The service has seen a surge in interest during the coronavirus pandemic. Customers spent $100 million last year buying celebrity shoutouts, according to chief executive Steven Galanis, with a fourfold increase in bookings.
Former Alaska governor and onetime GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin (“Hey guys, it’s Sarah Palin up here in Alaska”) signed up at the end of 2020.
And it might appeal to former White House aides struggling to find work after standing loyally beside a president accused of lying about election results and inciting an attack on the Capitol.
“I keep getting calls from people wondering if I can help them, but they are too late,” said an official who left early in Trump’s presidency. “The events since the election leave them in a very bad place.”
Chief of staff Mark Meadows is among them, according to one report, which stated he is considering joining the Trump Organization due to a lack of other options.
But there is always Cameo, which is already home to a handful of people who left the 45th president’s White House under a cloud.
At $55, Scaramucci’s videos are a steal, compared with the $199 charged by former press secretary Sean Spicer. His credibility was shattered from the beginning when he pushed back on inauguration photos showing gaps in the crowd, claiming it to be “the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe.”
Spicer does, however, give his fees to charity, and it is a better deal than the $400 he initially charged.
“Thank you for all your support, for watching Spicer and Company every night,” he said in a recent New Year’s message to a fan, referencing his Newsmax television show, “keeping up with what’s going on with the election, for apparently voting for me, I hope, on Dancing with the Stars. Thank you. It wasn’t my dancing skills that kept me on there. … It was folks like you.”
Omarosa Manigault Newman was a former Apprentice star who lasted a year at the White House before being fired by then-chief of staff John Kelly. She was escorted from the building but not before secretly taping the conversation and later sharing it with NBC’s Meet the Press.
She also dished the dirt in Unhinged, a memoir in which she claimed the president was racist.
Now, she is “Lady O” delivering pep talks, birthday wishes, and New Year’s greetings. “I wish you every success in 2021,” ran one recent message, “and I want you to run through every open door.”
Sebastian Gorka, who left the White House in acrimonious circumstances after less than a year, is another former official augmenting his income with $99 video messages.
As his former staffers peddle their remaining celebrity online, Trump has been holed up at his Mar-a-Lago resort and nearby golf club in South Florida — mulling his next move.
