One of Donald Trump‘s former White House aides believes that his ex-boss has given up trying to win over voters, claiming the former president has “lost his fighting spirit.”
With just weeks to go until the November 5 presidential election, Anthony Scaramucci has suggested that Trump no longer has the heart for the battle. Newsweek has reached out by email to Trump’s representatives seeking comment on the comments.
Although Scaramucci does have insider knowledge of what Trump is like first-hand, critics will point out that the former employee has his own axe to grind. Financier Scaramucci briefly served under Trump as the White House communications director in 2017. He was fired by the then-president just 10 days into the job after he slammed other members of the administration during what he thought was an off-the-record telephone call with The New Yorker. Since then, he has been a vocal critic of Trump and threw his support behind the Democrats by backing Joe Biden for president in 2020 and Kamala Harris in this year’s race.
Former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci speaks to reporters following the presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris at The National Constitution Center on September 10, 2024, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Scaramucci’s latest attack questioning Trump’s motivation comes after the former president rejected Harris’s challenge to go head-to-head with her in a second TV debate. Trump claimed it was because he had “clearly” won their first battle earlier this month. Most political commentators disagreed however and polling suggested that viewers believed Harris had outperformed her opponent. Harris’s team said if Trump was so certain he had won, they were confused as to why he was refusing a second bout.
On Monday, Scaramucci took to social media site X (formerly Twitter) to tell his 1 million followers: “I have to confess that I got this wrong about Trump. I thought it was a ruse that he didn’t want to debate by President Harris, but it appears that he’s actually lost his fighting spirit. There is something wrong. Not exactly sure what it is.”
He also shared an X post by attorney and anti-Trump activist George Conway (ex-husband of former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway), who said: “Pathological narcissists can be prone to depression when they suffer sufficient damage to their false, manufactured self-image.”
I have to confess that I got this wrong about Trump. I thought it was a ruse that he didn’t want to debate by President Harris, but it appears that he’s actually lost his fighting spirit. There is something wrong. Not exactly sure what it is.
— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) September 23, 2024
Trump is facing a string of legal woes and pending court battles ahead of the election.
On Thursday, prosecutor Jack Smith is expected to set out his election fraud case against Trump in a filing. Trump was indicted in Washington, D.C., on four counts of allegedly working to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the run-up to the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. The Republican presidential nominee has pleaded not guilty and has said the case is part of a political witch hunt.
Besides reaching out to Trump, Newsweek has also emailed Harris’s campaign team seeking comment on Scaramucci’s post.
