Anthony Scaramucci: "My wife hates Trump almost as much as Melania hates him"

The combination of Katty Kay’s political understanding honed over 30 years of world affairs journalism and Scaramucci’s enthusiasm for discussing all things (as well as his perhaps surprising breadth of historical reference) has made their show one of the fastest growing political podcasts in the world. So what’s the secret formula?

“I don’t really have a filter,” he begins. “I just say who I think are the good, the bad and the ugly. It may not work for the BBC or in The Times, but it does work in podcasting. It gives me an opportunity to articulate myself. I can say, this is what’s happening now, and this is what happened 25 years ago that led to it. Donald Trump’s one of the most malevolent people I’ve ever encountered, but you can’t blame everything on him. So I get the bandwidth to explain and reflect on all of that.”

Is there an agenda for political change afoot? For the first time he hesitates. “When I started this, I didn’t realise that, but yes, we are ripe for change. I want to hold the feet of both Republicans and Democrats to the fire. And I think a third party would help the country, because it would liquidate the extremes. But it’s going to be very hard because of vested interests.”

This is the same political zeal that propelled Scaramucci into Trump’s White House in 2017, where he cut quite the dash as the president’s comms chief, until he let slip a few too many opinions in a chat with a journalist and was unceremoniously discharged.

Now one of Trump’s most ardent critics, he admits only one thing put him there in the first place. “It was ego. It doesn’t reflect well on me, but I got what they call Potomac fever,” he says, referring to the river that runs through the nation’s power capital. “I thought, ‘I’m going to go to Washington and work for the President of the United States.’ I had to be humbled.” A tireless history buff, he adds: “You can read all the Greek classics, all of Shakespeare, and think, ‘That’s them, it’ll never be me.’ And then it is you. I had to have the reckoning.”

Scaramucci’s wife made her feelings known at the time, divorce papers were filed, he was sacked, they reunited. It’s quite the tale of personal meets political. He nods. “My wife hates Trump almost as much as Melania hates him. I nearly got divorced, but we love each other. I learnt, don’t make your relationship disposable. And here we are, eight years later. Today is our wedding anniversary.”

While Scaramucci is incensed by Trump’s intimidation tactics, personally he remains unfazed: “I live in America, where I was taught that I’m allowed to think and speak freely. I’m going to continue to do that.” He pauses. “I’m named after my uncle, a decorated veteran who stormed the Normandy beaches. I’m not making the comparison but if he could exhibit that level of courage, I can exercise my First Amendment right.”

And does he think Trump secretly tunes into the podcast, or even thinks about him? He laughs. “He would never listen to a 40-minute podcast, unless it was himself talking. But he called me a major loser, which I love. I thought that was great. You always want your ex-boyfriends or girlfriends to be still thinking about you.”

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