One of my favourite cinematic political satires is the Marx Brothers’ 1933 classic Duck Soup and over the last several months the inept administration of Donald J. Trump has developed a marked resemblance to the inane presidency of Rufus T. Firefly. For evidence of this one need look no further than the bizarre antics surrounding the recent appointment of Anthony Scaramucci as the White House Director of Communications, with the former financier immediately undermining the credibility of his new coworkers.
Ryan Lizza, the Washington correspondent of the New Yorker Magazine, received a surreal phone call from Scaramucci during the week which reveals the backstabbing paranoia and Medici-like infighting currently gripping the political leadership of the United States.
On Wednesday night, I received a phone call from Anthony Scaramucci, the new White House communications director. He wasn’t happy. Earlier in the night, I’d tweeted, citing a “senior White House official,” that Scaramucci was having dinner at the White House with President Trump, the First Lady, Sean Hannity, and the former Fox News executive Bill Shine. It was an interesting group, and raised some questions. Was Trump getting strategic advice from Hannity? Was he considering hiring Shine? But Scaramucci had his own question—for me.
“Who leaked that to you?” he asked. I said I couldn’t give him that information. He responded by threatening to fire the entire White House communications staff.
In Scaramucci’s view, the fact that word of the dinner had reached a reporter was evidence that his rivals in the West Wing, particularly Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff, were plotting against him. While they have publicly maintained that there is no bad blood between them, Scaramucci and Priebus have been feuding for months. After the election, Trump asked Scaramucci to join his Administration, and Scaramucci sold his company, SkyBridge Capital, in anticipation of taking on a senior role. But Priebus didn’t want him in the White House, and successfully blocked him from being appointed to a job until last week, when Trump offered him the communications job over Priebus’s vehement objections. In response to Scaramucci’s appointment, Sean Spicer, an ally of Priebus’s, resigned his position as press secretary. And in an additional slight to Priebus, the White House’s official announcement of Scaramucci’s hiring noted that he would report directly to the President, rather than to the chief of staff.
“They’ll all be fired by me,” he said. “I fired one guy the other day. I have three to four people I’ll fire tomorrow. I’ll get to the person who leaked that to you. Reince Priebus—if you want to leak something—he’ll be asked to resign very shortly.” The issue, he said, was that he believed Priebus had been worried about the dinner because he hadn’t been invited. “Reince is a fucking paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac,” Scaramucci said. He channelled Priebus as he spoke: “ ‘Oh, Bill Shine is coming in. Let me leak the fucking thing and see if I can cock-block these people the way I cock-blocked Scaramucci for six months.’ ” (Priebus did not respond to a request for comment.)
Scaramucci also told me that, unlike other senior officials, he had no interest in media attention. “I’m not Steve Bannon, I’m not trying to suck my own cock,” he said, speaking of Trump’s chief strategist. “I’m not trying to build my own brand off the fucking strength of the President. I’m here to serve the country.”
It seems that the US is being governed by people with the intelligence, wit and empathy of American daytime soap characters. The West Wing it is not. I urge you to read the whole article.
Speaking of madness, the reaction of the Pentagon to Donald Trump’s tweets banning transgender citizens from serving in the military speaks volumes of how the Commander-in-Chief is viewed by his own generals. From Buzzfeed:
At the Pentagon, the first of the three tweets raised fears that the president was getting ready to announce strikes on North Korea or some other military action. Many said they were left in suspense for nine minutes, the time between the first and second tweet. Only after the second tweet did military officials receive the news the president was announcing a personnel change on Twitter.
Both hilarious and terrifying.
Firefly: Gentlemen, Chicolini here may talk like an idiot, and look like an idiot. But don’t let that fool you. He really is an idiot.
AN SIONNACH FIONN 
I like him. Scaramucci is the fake news media’s worst nightmare. CNN printed a fake story about him,Scaramucci threatened to sue CNN for 100 million dollars. Fake news CNN admitted defeat,retracted story and was forced to fire 3 of its top employees. Scaramucci is a plain talker and takes no shit from anyone,just like Trump. Fake news media’s days are numbered.
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Your premise of the CNN incident is FAKE. The 3 CNN employees you speak of resigned after CNN ran a story they wrote and produced, then the network recanted it, and apologized. The three employees were understandably upset, that their hard work and die diligence to the truth, had been compromised by the top brass at CNN. They were never fired, or were even threatened with any kind of discipline.
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The story was a complete lie. Only reason Clinton News Network apologised is because Scaramucci threatened to sue. The fact you defend fake news corporate media like CNN says a lot about you. Still looking for those WMDs?
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I wonder if you believe this statement to be also true about Sean Hannity? He spread “fake news” using false quotes and conspiracy theories that FOX also had to recant and apologize for, but as of today he still has a job. If this is a blanket statement about the “fake” media, you should be calling for his head. If not, it can be considered hypocritical bluster from a biased Trump supporter.
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That’s the problem, they are all liars. Not that I like Faux News, they were the first to put the obvious fake into news, but CNN has recently taken it to new heights, spliced video, spliced audio, giving presidential candidates the answers in advance, fake muslim protests against terrorism, etc…, all while funded by foreign interests, they are the last who should be on the collusion bandwagon. Oh yeah, every time the “culprits” are rogue and are removed, but leaves one wondering. Especially Ms. Brazile who had been a mainstay of level-headed reporting, suddenly going “rogue,” evokes the thought of systemically forced misconduct rewarded by golden exit packages if caught. Meircan corruption at its finest. They are, for me, right up there with the papers reporting alien invasions.
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I notice you fail to mention the Democrats “IT Guy” just got arrested trying to flee to Pakistan after sending millions of dollars there and stealing classified info. And Trump admin is dysfunctional???
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You have got to be kidding with these posts of yours. It was 165,000 dollars, a far cry from millions. What classified info did he steal? Would love to know what ever proof you have. You must only read right wing whacko news to even come up with something like that. One has to admit that the Trump White House has been the most dysfunctional one in memory. I can think of at least 10 occasions where Spicer, Rebus, Huckabee’s kid, and now even Scararmoochie has spoken on record about a view or position the POTUS has taken, and within a couple hours, Trump himself has said the exact opposite or tweet the opposite. Even Bannon who recently said that the top tax level on the wealthy needs to be raised to 44%, while Trump insists it would be to high even at 30%.
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you sound like a typical pro status quo pro establishment automaton who gets his news from corporate fake media like BBC and CNN. Stay asleep,sheep.
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Well to be fair I have previously watched several spokespeople for Obamas White House administration stating something or another at official press conferences and for it to turn out to be false and even ridiculously false. The only thing was, they were never highlighted by the media.
Personally I still am satisfied that Clinton didn’t get elected(albeit I have no love for Trump) and if it turns out to be true that he is withdrawing the CIA etc from Syria then that can only be great news. Lord knows what Clinton would’ve done if she had the reigns.
Touch wood the world hasn’t fallen in around us so far in spite of all the doom and gloom merchants prophecies. We may well have the rantings and threats aimed at Korea,Iran etc but I’ll take that any day I.e rants and threats over actions. P.s I sincerely hope they keep out of Venezuela too.
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There all dysfunctional. They are indeed all idiots. They are like 4 year olds playing football, no one minds the goal and everyone’s running after the ball. The ball is a fistful of dollars kickbacks and they are all corrupt. This includes the so-called democrats. American politics is worse joke than ours.
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The Trump presidency and White House are dysfunctional, only if you believe everything you hear from the fake news media and the shallow Hollywood liberal elite. Just remember, Trump is seen as an intruder by the corrupt establishment, and they’re doing everything they can to undermine him: ( Russia investigation that hasn’t gone anywhere in nearly a year, as well as all the leaks taking place). Trump’s concerned about Americans. The establishment is only concerned about itself.
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“the shallow Hollywood liberal elite” – why do you bother listening to these people? They are elite only in that they look good on a screen. Parroting what these airheads say is indeed fake news. More fool you if you react to them.
On the other hand Trump has been seriously caught up in a scandal involving the US’s traditional enemy. He has done his best to stall any investigation into it – even by his own appointees. There’s no denying or sugarcoating that.
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True.
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