[van id=”tv/2017/07/31/scaramucci-out-at-white-house-orig-mewe.cnn”]
Anthony Scaramucci is out as White House communications director, the latest sign of chaos inside the Trump administration.
Scaramucci’s ouster is the most recent high-profile departure from the Trump White House. Chief of Staff Reince Priebus resigned at the end of last week, replaced by John Kelly, whose first day is Monday.
“Anthony Scaramucci will be leaving his role as White House Communications Director,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement Monday afternoon. “Mr. Scaramucci felt it was best to give chief of staff John Kelly a clean slate and the ability to build his own team. We wish him all the best.”
Scaramucci started Monday thinking he could weather the storm surrounding him after a salacious interview he gave The New Yorker magazine, three people who talked to him Monday said. It wasn’t until after he attended the Oval Office swearing-in ceremony of John Kelly that he learned he was being asked to step aside.
Kelly delivered the news in a face-to-face meeting with Scaramucci in his office, two people familiar with Monday’s sudden turn of events said, making getting Scaramucci out one of his first official acts as chief of staff.
“He had no plans to resign before that,” a person who talked to Scaramucci on Monday morning said. “He thought he could fix it.”
A White House official said Kelly, a retired Marine general who is known for his fastidious nature, wanted Scaramucci removed from his new role as the communications director because he did not think he was disciplined and had burned his credibility.
“John Kelly is in charge now,” one source close to Kelly told CNN as Scaramucci resigned, noting that it was clear Kelly “had no confidence in him.”
