President Trump further distanced himself from Anthony Scaramucci Monday, claiming the former White House communications director “abused staff” and “was a mental wreck” the president didn’t like.
“Anthony Scaramucci is a highly unstable ’nut job’ who was with other candidates in the primary who got shellaced [sic], and then unfortunately wheedled his way into my campaign. I barely knew him until his 11 days of gross incompetence-made a fool of himself, bad on TV. Abused staff, got fired. Wrote a very nice book about me just recently. Now the book is a lie?” he tweeted, later reposting the tweet to correct the spelling of “shellacked.”
The president then discussed Mr. Scaramucci’s earlier marital woes, mentioning his wife, Deidre Ball, filing for divorce in June 2017. That divorce would later be called off six months later.
“Said his wife was driving him crazy, ’something big’ was happening with her. Getting divorced. He was a mental wreck. We didn’t want him around. Now Fake News puts him on like he was my buddy!” the president said.
The president’s latest attack might have been sparked by Mr. Scaramucci telling CNN’s “New Day’ Monday that he has spoken with several Cabinet members in the Trump administration who plan to speak against the president for being “unstable” and work with the Republican Party to find a new 2020 candidate.
“This is not a never-Trump situation, this is not just screeching rhetoric. This is, OK, the guy’s unstable, everyone inside knows it. Everyone outside knows it. Let’s see if we can find a viable alternative. Moreover, I’ve got to get these former Cabinet officials in unity to speak up about it. They know it’s a crisis,” he said.
In his first response to the president’s accusations, Mr. Scaramucci tweeted a statement made by his wife: “I don’t really like being tweeted at by @potus on a Monday morning but at least I had my coffee” and added, “more would follow.”
Mr. Trump tweeted after the piece aired that there’s “great cohesion” in the GOP.
Once a longtime supporter of Mr. Trump, Mr. Scaramucci suddenly switched sides Sunday, calling for the Republican Party to run someone else in the 2020 election who isn’t a “pernicious evil” and can “take constructive criticism.”
While Mr. Scaramucci admitted he broke with Mr. Trump partly due to the president doxxing him on Twitter, he also said he’s worried about the country’s future with all the “bullying” and division furthered by the president.
• Bailey Vogt can be reached at bvogt@washingtontimes.com.
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