Just this morning, Donald Trump declared with enthusiasm that there’s no “chaos” in the White House. His timing could’ve been better.
After less than two weeks on the job, Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci is out, the White House announced on Monday.
The sudden and unexpected departure is just the latest in a series of stunning shakeups in the administration, with new Chief of Staff John Kelly being sworn in on Monday, replacing Reince Priebus, who was pushed out last week.
With 10 days on the job, Scaramucci is the shortest-serving communications director in White House history.
For context, let’s note that Jack Koehler served for nearly two weeks as Reagan’s communications director in 1987 before stepping down. There was a controversy surrounding Koehler’s participation as a child in a Hitler youth program in Germany in 1940.
Regardless, Scaramucci’s tenure was so short, it hadn’t actually begun in earnest: though Donald Trump tapped him for the job just 10 days ago despite his total lack of qualifications or relevant skills, Scaramucci’s first official day on the White House payroll was still two weeks off.
His star didn’t shine very long, but it certainly shined bright. Ten days on the job, Scaramucci gave several truly bizarre interviews, including a profanity-laced harangue targeting some of his colleagues in the West Wing. He also openly clashed with Sean Spicer and Reince Priebus, who left Team Trump shortly before Scaramucci’s departure.
The New York hedge fund manager quickly came to symbolize much of what we’ve come to expect from Trump’s presidency: Scaramucci was obscene, unprepared, undisciplined, needlessly cocky, hopelessly incompetent, and in way over his head. Now, apparently thanks to new White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, the West Wing will be a little quieter, if nothing else. As for the volatility surrounding Trump World, just six months into the new administration, we’ve seen a startling amount of dramatic departures, including the White House chief of staff, the deputy chief of staff, the press secretary, an assistant press secretary, two communications directors, the National Security Advisor, two deputy National Security Advisors, the vice president’s chief of staff, an acting attorney general, the director of the FBI, the director of the Office of Government Ethics, and dozens of U.S. attorneys. This does not include the various shake-ups we’ve seen on Trump’s outside legal team. Nope, no “chaos” here. None at all. Why do you ask?
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past." Recommended
