President Trump has allowed former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci to continue his recent spate of attacks on chief of staff John Kelly, CNN reported Tuesday.
A source told the network that Trump has not discouraged Scaramucci from going on the offensive against Kelly, whom Scaramucci has criticized in a series of recent interviews over various White House personnel decisions.
Scaramucci has been critical of Kelly for his handling of domestic abuse allegations against former White House staff secretary Rob Porter. Kelly initially defended Porter after allegations he physically abused his ex-wives were made public. Scaramucci called on Kelly to resign following the incident.
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Last week, the Wall Street financier and former Trump aide continued his attacks on the chief of staff, dubbing him “General Jackass” and blaming him for poor morale within the White House.
“The morale’s terrible, and the reason why the morale is terrible is that the rule by fear and intimidation does not work in a civilian environment,” Scaramucci said.
The White House said last week that Scaramucci was blocked from entering the complex without special approval from top officials.
Scaramucci lasted 10 days as communications director last summer, but was ousted by Kelly after he made scathing and obscene comments to a reporter about then-senior White House officials Reince Priebus and Stephen Bannon.
Trump on Tuesday insisted that “everybody” wants to work in his administration despite reports of a chaotic environment and a series of recent high-profile departures.
White House communications director Hope Hicks, communications official Josh Raffel and chief economic adviser Gary Cohn have all announced their resignations in the last week.