President Donald Trump offered the job of White House communications director to Anthony Scaramucci on Friday morning, according to a senior administration official, a White House official and a source with knowledge. Scaramucci accepted.
The position has been vacant since longtime Republican strategist Mike Dubke resigned from the communications director post in late May after about three months on the job, leaving White House press secretary Sean Spicer to take on many of those duties.
The communications director position is a first for Scaramucci, who has never held a formal political communications role.
Scaramucci will step into the role — typically one of the most sought-after in political communications — at a time when the White House remains engulfed in the ongoing drip of stories about contacts between the Trump campaign and Russians and the special counsel investigation probing the matter.
Scaramucci will step into the role a month after he began a role as vice president and chief strategy officer at the Export-Import Bank.
But the New York hedge fund manager has been a prominent TV surrogate for the President — during the campaign and since he was sworn in — and previously hosted a financial news show.
And while Dubke’s lack of a relationship with Trump hampered his efforts, Scaramucci will enter the West Wing armed with a year-old relationship with the President.
Scaramucci’s political experience has been more focused on the fundraising realm, having served as national finance co-chair of 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. He later fundraised for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in the 2016 GOP primaries before joining the Trump campaign’s national finance committee.
He also served on the executive committee of Trump’s transition team after the election.
Scaramucci was initially tapped to lead the Office of Public Liaison and Intergovernmental Affairs, but never stepped into the role amid concerns over the pending sale of his hedge fund, The New York Times reported.
