Anthony Scaramucci: This election will be ‘a kind of referendum’ on Trump
Former White House communications director explains why the campaign has become significantly more challenging for ex-boss
It was a political romance that turned into political hatred. It happened to many of Donald Trump’s associates who were close to him in the White House. First, they were apotheosizing him and then they revealed his inadequacies in glowing detail after they left. With no one, however, was the turnaround as spectacular as with the explosive Anthony Scaramucci. The Italian New Yorker, notorious for his temperament, was recruited as Trump’s White House director of communications on July 21, 2017, and dismissed from the White House on July 31 of that same month. In those 10 days, he caused quite a political storm, calling for and succeeding in firing Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and feeding the media a lot of political drama. Since then, Scaramucci has emerged as one of the former president’s fiercest critics. In an interview with Kathimerini, the host of the “Open Book” podcast and head of the investment firm SkyBridge Capital outlines the personality of his former boss and explains why the campaign has gotten much harder for Trump and J.D. Vance since Kamala Harris’ entrance.
Having been associated with Donald Trump during his presidency, how would you describe his personality? How would you explain his success?
He is a very good communicator, nonconventional, and has very good political instincts. In the United States, there are certain issues, such as border tensions and immigration, that bother some groups of people. Trump has identified them and is using them. The same is true of the great “culture war” going on in our society, where the “hard left” and the “hard right” want to impose their lifestyle on each other. Trump has managed to take the side of the hard right and galvanize them.
However, Trump lacks executive management skills and generally does not like people. You should be aware that he is a bit of a misanthrope and misogynist. His very rich friends want to create an oligarchy where they run the system and try to prove they are better than the rest of us.
Do you recall any particular story or incident from your time with him which was indicative of his personality?
At first, you dislike him, but he has a strong base and political force, and looks like he is going to win, and you say, “OK, let me figure out ways to like him.” So you find ways to like him. You try to side with him and help him, but he continues his malevolence, his hysteria, and different levels of insanity, and then you dislike him again. So, you say: “OK, I cannot help this guy. I have to protect my country and speak out against him.” It is a patriotic duty to be able to explain to the world what Trump is really like.
Personally, I have been a lifelong Republican, but what Trump represents is not “Republicanism.” It is a sort of “anarcho-Christian radicalism” and it’s not something I want for the country.
Recently, Democrats have been using the term “weird” in their communication strategy to describe Trump and Vance’s views. Do you agree with this label?
Of course. Take a look at J.D. Vance walking the tarmac awkwardly with all those pudgy white guys and acting like a moron, saying, “That is going to be my plane [Air Force Two] someday.” That is pretty weird, while, on the other hand, Trump uses orange “makeup” on his face, wears two-inch lifts on his shoes, and his hair is dyed orange. I mean, he is Berlusconi in his multiple and all of this is very strange and weird, especially for young people.
The photo of the attempted assassination of former president Trump seems to be fading in the minds of the public, what mistakes do you put down to Trump’s communication tactics?
‘You should be aware that he is a bit of a misanthrope and misogynist. His very rich friends want to create an oligarchy where they run the system and try to prove they are better than the rest of us’
It was a very tragic event and, thank God, he was not badly hurt. But now you need to weigh this photo and consider the options. Governor Nikki Haley said that the first party to knock out one of the two 80-year-olds and put up somebody younger is going to win the election. And so now we have a 60-year-old running against an 80-year-old, and Kamala is very smart and very disciplined. She is running a very good campaign while Trump is floundering and the reason he is floundering is because he does not understand how to combat her.
20.2 million baby boomers [born between 1946 and 1964] who voted for Trump in the 2016 election are now deceased. On the other hand, 40 million Generation Xers have risen to the voting scrolls. Thus, the whole mosaic of the country, the whole configuration of the voter demographic base has shifted away from the baby boomers, and Trump looks quite tired. Consequently, if he is going to call Kamala “stupid,” Generation X is going to react and say, “That is racist.” You know, you can call Joe Biden old. But Kamala is not. When Trump goes to the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) and tries to suggest that she turned black or some such nonsense, people look at him like he is crazy. And, by the way, who cares if she has a black father? But Trump is a paleolithic guy doing “ancient” things against a non-“ancient” candidate. So, if the 78-year-old Trump versus the 81-year-old Biden looked young and dynamic, now he looks like an old fool.
With the poll numbers showing a slight lead for Harris, what personality traits convince people to support her?
I have been in her presence and I have met her personally. She is much more talented than people give her credit for. I think one of the problems with being the vice president of the United States is that you are sort of in that sheltered environment and you do not have the chance to break out or show your skills.
I think as a candidate she is doing very well and I think you will see her skill set shine. She has some very smart people on her staff, and she is being helped by Biden’s people, as well as Biden himself. And I think Democrats understand what is at stake in this election. You know, Trump really wants to change the makeup of the country and that would be an absolute disaster for us and we have to do everything we can to stop that from happening.
In your view, can Harris beat Trump?
I think that she is going to win the election. And I have consistently said that Trump would lose even when he was running against Joe Biden. Trump is not the right person for America at this moment in history. So we have to ask ourselves: Do we want to revoke our obligation to NATO and pull out? Do we want to support dictators like Putin and their incursion into other sovereign countries? Do we want a man who is in a love fest with dictators and disavows our allies and a man who will raise tariffs?
So, for all these reasons, people say they do not want him and they do not want his policies in the country. On the other hand, they agree with some of Trump’s positions, such as for more clarity on legal versus illegal immigration and creating an environment for our businesses to grow. But they do not want all the hatred and division he is promoting.
You recently stated that it would be a disaster for Trump if he chooses not to debate with Harris. Do you think he will eventually confront Harris on live television, and, if so, on what terms?
He has already agreed to the ABC debate, as he sees he has fallen in the polls. Remember when he thought he was winning he did not debate any of his adversaries for the Republican nomination. Now that he is down in the polls, he knows he needs to debate her to see if he can knock her off her game.
If I were advising Kamala Harris, I would say, “Let’s be cautious and see if he acts like a nut on the debate stage.” If so, she does not need not confront him again, but she should definitely confront him at least once.
What factors will determine the outcome of the election?
Trump has 100% name recognition and the election will be a kind of referendum, which is either “We like Donald Trump” and go back to his policies or “We do not like him” and move on. And so, this is all going to be about turnout.
The bad news for Trump is that he has no campaign teams in the field, he has cut his field staff, and usually in elections there are people who get in cars and buses and go to the polls on election day to influence the outcome. So, it is going to be a close election and I think he will lose it. If I am wrong, we will live with Donald Trump for a while, but if I am right, we will have the end of “Trumpism.”
