Trump removes communications director Scaramucci
July 31, 2017
News of Anthony Scaramucci's removal as White House communications director came just hours after US President Donald Trump swore in new chief of staff John Kelly.
According to the New York Times, the dismissal came at Kelly's request.
In a short statement, the White House said "Mr. Scaramucci felt it was best to give Chief of Staff John Kelly a clean slate and the ability to build his own team."
Sean Spicer used the same "clean slate" language to explain his resignation as press secretary on the day of Scaramucci's appointment.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told a press briefing there were no plans for Scaramucci to fill another position in the Trump administration. The third communications director for the Trump administration - after Michael Dubke and Sean Spicer - was escorted from the White House grounds. Spicer was seen by reporters in the West Wing on Monday, apparently helping to draft the short statement announcing Scaramucci's departure.
On Kelly's first day at the White House as chief of staff, Sanders said he had "the full authority to carry out business as he sees fit." All White House staffers, including powerful aides such as Trump's daughter, Ivanka, her husband, Jared Kushner, and chief strategist Steve Bannon would report to Kelly, a retired four-star general. He would "bring new structure, discipline and strength," to the White House she said.
'Inappropriate' comments
Former financier Scaramucci courted major controversy last week after the New Yorker magazine published an interview in which he went on a foul-mouthed tirade against two White House colleagues - former chief of staff Reince Priebus, who was sacked last week, and Steve Bannon.
Sanders didn't specify whether Scaramucci had resigned voluntarily or was fired, but she told journalists that "the president felt that Anthony's comments were inappropriate for a person in that position and he didn't want to burden General Kelly."
After swearing in Kelly earlier on Monday, Trump touted on Twitter that there was "no chaos" in his administration.
However, there were more revelations about Trump's son Donald Jr's meeting with a Russian lawyer last year from the Washington Post on Monday. The newspaper reported that President Trump dictated a statement, later shown to be misleading, in which Trump Jr said that the June 2016 meeting was not related to his father's presidential campaign.
dm,nm/jm (AFP, Reuters, dpa)