Welcome to the first episode of my new video/podcast Q&A series: Failing Up!
If you are wondering about the title, it’s not because I’m interested in interviewing “losers” – to use Trump parlance – on the contrary, I will be interviewing “winners.” But people are so much more thoughtful and interesting when discussing overcoming adversity than when discussing smooth-sailing. Smooth-sailing is actually pretty boring.
I can’t think of anyone in my rolodex better to kick this off than my friend, Anthony Scaramucci (aka The Mooch), the financier, podcaster – and not least, the notorious Trump White House Press Secretary of just 11 days.
I met Anthony in 2016 before he went into the Trump White House. We clicked right from the start. He’s impossible not to like. (Even Trump – he believes, and I suspect he’s right – still loves him. That’s why he bothered to post on Truth Social a couple of days ago that Anthony is a “major loser.”)
I talked to Anthony often during that messy 11-day period. And I talked to him in the days and weeks right after. It’s extraordinary to watch someone you know and admire blow themselves up like that so publicly – but what’s even more extraordinary is the way he coped and recovered, bouncing back better and stronger than before.
I was looking through my notes before doing this interview to remind myself of what we talked about during that time. I wrote down that just 24 hours after he lost his job, Anthony hadn’t lost his sense of humor.
He answered his phone to me, “White House Communications Department. Oh, excuse me, I’m sorry. Is this not the White House Communications Department?”
Ask yourself if you’d be capable of that when you are a punch-line on Late-Night TV.
I certainly wouldn’t be.
These days Anthony is hosting a podcast – The Rest is Politics (US) with Katty Kay, the former BBC anchor – on top of running his alternative asset management firm, Skybridge Capital.
He’s as irrepressible and honest as ever.
He begins, typically, by discussing our hair color: “you don’t want to go to Rudy Giuliani’s colorist,” but we move on to cover a lot of substantial ground: the reason he got into politics (to meet people who’d be helpful to his business); his experience one-on-one with Trump (as part of the 2016 transition team, he used to be able to give him his honest opinions – but that changed once Trump was actually in the White House); his thoughts about the longevity or brevity of the Trump/Musk bromance (he predicts Musk will be a Democrat by 2028); the next Treasury Secretary (it depends on Trump’s insecurity levels; if he feels aggrieved, he’ll appoint a “loyalty lackey”); the enormous cultural shift in this country; the worry that no one is talking honestly to Trump right now; the hope that Trump may govern moderately. And, lastly, I asked him if he’d ever return to the Trump White House…
There’s also some talk equating Elon Musk’s rockets to flying penises and a quip about the contest Trump had with Marco Rubio in 2016 (see a snippet below) that I probably should cut, but what the heck…after all, this is The Mooch. He was fired from the White House for saying worse things.
As I wrote last week, this series is for my paid subscribers. Your support is what allows me to bring you candid, independent political analysis and discussions like this one. So if it is within your means, please do sign up! I promise it will be worth your while…
Enjoy.
Watch the full interview at Vicky Ward Investigates