Wall Street financier and GOP donor Anthony Scaramucci will be the next White House communications director, according to multiple reports.
Citing “two sources familiar with the planning,” Axios reported that President Trump is expected to announce that Scaramucci will fill the role that has been vacant since Mike Dubke resigned in May. NBC News confirmed the report, citing “four sources in and close to the White House,” and noted that it will be announced on Friday.
Press Secretary Sean Spicer has been picking up the majority of Dubke’s responsibilities since he left the administration. It is unclear how Scaramucci will impact Spicer’s role. Axios noted that Chief of Staff Reince Priebus found out about the plan to hire Scaramucci after the decision was made; NBC reported that Spicer will remain on the staff.
Scaramucci appears on cable news to defend Trump on a regular basis and once had a show on Fox Business Network. The former head of SkyBridge Capital was widely expected to be part of the White House staff from day one, but nothing came of it.
The White House has been keeping its communications team away from cameras lately: the last on-camera White House press briefing was back on June 29. Last month, Politico reported that Spicer was reaching out to prospective candidates to take over his position as part a plan to shake up the White House communications operation.
Scaramucci recently made headlines when three CNN employees resigned after the network retracted a story that tied him to a Russian investment fund. According to the network, an internal investigation found that “some standard editorial processes were not followed when the article was published.”