MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Trump revamps communications office: names a hedge fund banker and Fox Business hand

Anthony Scaramucci, 52, is a long-standing Trump supporter who has known the president for years, major Republican donor and founder of SkyBridge Capital

United States President Donald Trump has triggered a shake-up by appointing Wall Street financier Anthony Scaramucci as his White House communications director. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer quit, reportedly in response to the move, which was announced on 21 July. He had been partially filling the communications role since the previous incumbent Michael Dubke resigned in May.

 Anthony Scaramucci, 52, is a long-standing Trump supporter who has known the president for years. A major Republican donor and founder of investment firm SkyBridge Capital, he served as an adviser on the presidential transition team.

Mr Scaramucci is currently a senior vice-president and chief strategy officer at the Export-Import Bank - the US government's export credit agency. He is expected to begin his new job in August.

Following Mr Spicer's departure, he will be working with Sarah Huckabee Sanders - who now takes on the White House press secretary mantle, having been deputy.

In January 2017, the Wall Street bigwig was linked to the role of director for the Office of Public Liaison - where he would have managed the administration's engagement with the US business and political communities.

The job failed to materialize due to complications over the sale of his stake in SkyBridge, which meant it would take months for him to pass conflict-of-interest checks.

Scaramucci is nicknamed “The Mooch”, except by former president George W Bush, who reportedly calls him “Gucci Scaramucci”. The well-groomed banker previously hosted a financial television show, Wall Street Week, on Fox Business.

He is the author of three books, titled - Hopping Over the Rabbit Hole: How Entrepreneurs Turn Failure Into Success, Goodbye Gordon Gekko: How to Find Your Fortune without Losing Your Soul, and The Little Book of Hedge Funds (Little Books. Big Profits). He has also contributed to the Fox News Channel, and staunchly defended the president in TV appearances.

A White House official told Reuters that the financier was interviewed by Mr Trump on Friday morning, and that the job was duly offered and accepted. The president's daughter Ivanka Trump was said to have attended the 30-minute meeting.

In a news conference shortly after his appointment, Scaramucci addressed rumors of tension between himself and White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, saying he considered him “a brother”. He said the pair had been “personal friends for six years” and that Mr Priebus was involved in him joining as communications director.

“We are a little bit like brothers where we rough each other up once in a while - which is totally normal for brothers,” he said.

The Harvard-educated millionaire is close to Mr. Trump's eldest son, Donald Jr, and respected by Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner - a senior adviser to the president.