New White House communications director compares US to “disruptive startup”

Speaking to Emily Maitlis as part of a Newsnight segment, Anthony Scaramucci said Donald Trump was taking the US back to the fundamentals of the founding fathers in the late 18th century.

In an interview with Maitlis, the White House communications director, who only took up the role in mid-July, said: “This nation is a disruptive startup. It was a group of rich guys who got together and said we’re going to break away from the other country and start our own country.

“You know what the president is doing? He is bringing it back to its roots of disruption. We’re going to disrupt half of the political system to take care of the American people.”

The focus of the BBC interview centred on the post-Brexit UK and US trade deal Theresa May’s government is trying to establish. Taking to Twitter on 26 July, Trump said: “Working on a major trade deal with the United Kingdom. Could be very big & exciting. JOBS! The E.U.is very protectionist with the U.S. STOP! [sic].”

He also used the social media platform to add: “Our special relationship w/UK is going to be even better. @USTradeRep & UK’s @LiamFox met today to begin new chapter for stronger trade! [sic].”

Scaramucci accepted the job as White House communications director on 21 July, nearly two months after his predecessor, Michael Duke, quit the post. Shortly after Scaramucci entered the White House, Trump’s press secretary, Shaun Spicer, announced his resignation.

Scaramucci also referred to Trump as a “hack politician” and urged him to “bring it” back in 2015.

Talking about what Trump would be looking for as part of a trade deal, Scaramucci said: “He is about reciprocity. He is about fair and equal trade – he just wants it to be reciprocal. There is a historical context for that. When we came out of the Second World War, the United States put in place the Marhsall Plan and then, working in coordination with state and treasury, we unevened [sic] the trade deals so that we could allow goods and services to flow freely into the United States. But we excepted some level of embargo activity elsewhere so that we could grow those middle class groups.”

Trump, who has now been in office for nearly 200 days, has already declared his displeasure for both the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) – the latter of which he has already scrapped.

TTIP is the European equivalent of TPP and has only recently been agreed. In May, European Commission president Jean-Claud Juncker failed to clarify whether, after a meeting with Trump, TTIP might be revived.

[rb_inline_related]

Share this story