Anthony Scaramucci praises Trump’s political instincts, use of Twitter

Former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci said President Donald Trump has great political instincts, and his use of Twitter is an effective way to appeal to his supporters.

Scaramucci, who was fired from his position last year after 11 days, said Trump was smart to identify the disaffection of the working class and build his 2016 campaign on it.

“You may not like his syntax or certain ways that he approaches things, but he's got very, very good political instincts and he's very, very intelligent,” Scaramucci said at a National Press Club Headliners Newsmaker press conference. “He's just intelligent in a different way than most people, which is why he's been successful in a very unorthodox way.”

Others in the administration have tried to stop Trump from using Twitter so much, but Scaramucci said it can help counter what the President sees as overly negative media reports.

“The president feels that it is slanted, so he feels he needs to use Twitter to hop over the mainstream media and to deliver the message directly to the people that he thinks are going to vote for him,” Scaramucci said.

And while Trump has been called out for appearing to play fast and loose with the truth, Scaramucci said that he is “getting the gist of what he's saying right and he's delivering the message, in his mind, in a very powerful way to the people that he's trying to resonate the message with.”

Scaramucci said he is writing a book with the working title “The Blue-Collar President,” about “how a billionaire living in a tower on Fifth Avenue adjacent to the Tiffany store identified something that was going on in a neighborhood similar to the one I grew up in: a quintessential working-class neighborhood.”

Trump’s administration has been plagued by staffing turnover. Yesterday the nominee for Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. Ronny Jackson withdrew from consideration for the position. Scaramucci said that no one is perfect and blamed the “system” that disqualifies good people for making one mistake.

Meanwhile, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt is under pressure for alleged ethical violations and misuse of government funds, something Scaramucci should be punished if true.

“Let's say some of this is true: Is this really a swamp or is it a gold-plated hot tub?” he asked. “If these guys are sitting in a gold-plated hot tub smoking cigars and passing champagne to each other, it's very, very unfair to the average American person. I would suggest that people knock that off.”

With the mid-term elections in November, many pundits and political observers have said that Republicans could lose seats in Congress, given Trump’s apparent unpopularity. But Scaramucci said if Republicans can show how last year’s tax legislation helps ordinary Americans, they can fend off a feared “Blue Wave” of Democrats.

“If they can get the positive benefits of tax reform filtered into the society and have higher wages, people typically vote with their pocket-books,” he said. “It'll be interesting to see what happens.”