Capitol Report
By State Representative, Leon D. Young
Leon D. Young
In case you missed it, which is extremely hard to believe, there was considerable upheaval in the Trump administration last week – and for this wayward group of rogues that’s indeed saying a lot. First and foremost, Sean Spicer, the embattled White House press secretary, abruptly resigned his post as Trump’s media surrogate; and, Anthony Scaramucci was quickly ushered in to replace him.
Spicer, the butt of continuous jokes by latenight comics, reportedly quit in protest over the hiring of Mr. Scaramucci as the new White House communications director. Spicer denounced what he considered Scaramucci’s lack of qualifications in the media field.
This begs the obvious question: Why would Trump turn to someone with little in their background that directly relates to communications to be his new communications director? Scaramucci’s appointment would seem to make sense, perhaps in more Trumpian ways:
• He has a direct line to the president.
• He’s close to Mr. Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and is respected by Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.
• He was a major fundraiser for the Trump campaign.
• He has been a staunch defender of Mr. Trump on the president’s preferred medium, Twitter. In other words, he’s displayed his loyalty.
As we have seen so often, Trump places enormous importance on people pledging their loyalty to him. And, when an individual is perceived as having broken this commitment, Trump has a cataclysmic meltdown and engages in constant Twitter attacks. Just ask Attorney General Jeff Sessions who now find himself squarely in Trump’s unrelenting cross-hairs.
President Trump has harshly criticized his attorney general and one of his most loyal supporters, Jeff Sessions, for recusing himself from the ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Moreover, he has made it crystal clear that he would have not appointed Sessions, a top campaign supporter, if he had known Sessions would step aside.
In his first appearance before a national audience as the new communications director, Scaramucci hit a home run with Trump’s inner circle. He was extremely flattering of his new boss and, even went as far as to suggest that Trump’s bogus claim that millions of people voted illegally in the 2016 general election was credible.
In many respects, Scaramucci is a carbon copy, or Mini-Me, of Trump: both native New Yorker, billionaires, business financiers and like his boss – has no previous political experience. From all accounts, Scaramucci is a smooth operator – who is more than willing to tout the company line. But, at the end of the day, Scaramucci glibness cannot mask Trump’s obvious ineptitude for the office