Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci said Sunday that President Trump’s harsh criticisms about the media are “very bad for the country.”
“I would encourage people that are in the West Wing, if they think differently than the president, they should speak out,” Scaramucci told CNN. “I don’t think that this war with the media is something that’s going to help him long term.”
The advice from Scaramucci, who only lasted 10 days in the White House, came shortly after Trump tweeted that the media are the “enemy of the people.”
[Also read: Ivanka Trump says media is not the ‘enemy’]
The Fake News hates me saying that they are the Enemy of the People only because they know it’s TRUE. I am providing a great service by explaining this to the American People. They purposely cause great division & distrust. They can also cause War! They are very dangerous & sick!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 5, 2018
“I’ve said that consistently that they’re not the enemy,” Scaramucci said referencing Trump’s inflammatory claim. “You can have an adversarial relationship, you can disagree with people in the press … But I don’t like the war declaration because it will lead to something that none of us really want.”
Trump has attacked the media since his 2016 campaign, where he began calling media outlets like CNN and MSNBC “fake news.”
Scaramucci said that he supports the president but believes that “tactically and strategically, the rhetoric that he’s using … is very, very bad for the country.”
