I don't want Trump to be president again: Anthony Scaramucci

Former President Donald Trump appeared at a Manhattan courtroom this week for charges related to his role in a hush-money payment occurring in the final days of the 2016 presidential campaign. Former White House Communication Director Anthony Scaramucci joined Yahoo Finance's Brad Smith and Jared Blikre to discuss the latest surrounding Trump's legal woes, saying he "doesn’t like the case," explaining he feels there are "technical things in the case that lawyers only understand between misdemeanors and felonies."

Scaramucci, who worked for the White House during Trump's presidency, isn’t keen on the former President returning to office.

"I certainly don't want Mr. Trump to be president, he doesn't have the executive management skills to handle that job, and there's too much negative attention, and of course he would do things I think would be harmful for the United States."

Scaramucci added that Trump's presidential run is unlikely amid his ongoing legal issues.

"I think he drops out of the race before the Iowa Caucuses," but added that "anything can happen in the United States."

Check out the full interview here.

Key Video Moments

00:00:10 - Discussion on Trump's legal issues

00:01:00 - Breaking down what Trump can expect this year

00:02:30- Trump will drop out of race before Iowa Caucuses

Video transcript

ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI: I think I have a little bit of a contrarian take. I don't like the case. I think a case that's being brought against a former president needs to have more meat than j. There's technical things in the case that lawyers really understand between misdemeanors and felonies. There was a little bit of a conversion there to extend the statute of limitations. I don't necessarily think that was fair either.

So that notwithstanding, I certainly don't want Mr. Trump to be president again. He doesn't have the executive management skills to handle that job. And there's just too much negative attention associated with him. And of course, he would do things, I think, that would be very harmful to the United States.

But the case is not a great case. I think the Republicans would do way better if they found a better messenger for their movement, a younger person, probably with better, fresher ideas. The country has changed.

We have this beautiful, colorful mosaic of demography in the United States. It's a very different country than it was in 2016. And I think we need a Republican Party that has an entrepreneurial candidate that sort of cuts the ideas of that party to shape and reflect what's going on in our population.

So hopefully that will happen. That's clearly not Mr. Trump. But I will say one last thing. He's got an avalanche of things coming. He's got the Georgia situation coming and a likely indictment there, the J6 situation, and of course, the documents situation, which there'll be a lot of hypocrisy about because if they go after him for the document situation, well, they'll have to go after other people like President Biden.

So we're in a little bit of a mess, as we usually are. But it's an amazing country. And I really do have a lot of reasons to be optimistic for things in the future. But it's a rough period of time right now.

BRAD SMITH: Hopefully a more informed country over the time that these cases continue to move forward as well. Considering the other cases that you mentioned here and kind of looking past what's taking place, as you'd kind of called the New York case a very weak one, which has been the commentary and been the broader thinking around what even took place this week. But still, you've got the Capitol riots case.

You've got the 2020 elections case, of course, in Georgia as well. So with all of that considered and how the GOP will also need to shape their own future considerations for who the party nominee is, should then the markets also be taking off the table any possibility of a Trump presidency or a Trump nomination from the GOP in the future?

ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI: Again, I have a contrarian take. I think he drops out of this race before the Iowa caucuses. I think you've got the additional indictments coming, which are going to be very distracting and time-consuming. And people don't like me saying this about Mr. Trump. But he is a family person. He may have a dysfunctional family, may be a little bit of a weird guy. But he ran a family business with his family, the Trump Organization.

He ran a reality show just like that as well. He ran the White House with his family. And his family is conspicuously absent here. And remember, these are cases, at least the ones in New York, about personal indiscretions, which I think is also causing him some personal strain and anxiety.

So the combination of those things, I think, take him out of the race. But as you and I both know, anything can happen in America. Could he get the nomination of the Republican Party if he stays in the race? Well, then I predict that he would get that because they'll have seven or eight Republican other candidates in the race. They'll each mete out 5%, 7% of the vote. He'll get his requisite 25% of the vote. He'll get the nomination.

But I honestly don't think there's a path to the presidency for Mr. Trump, given the changes in the demography and given his approach to campaigning, the style, the rhetoric, the hate speeches, all that stuff. But anything can happen in America. We both know that. I don't think the market is really thinking about that right now. The market seems more focused on the macro dynamics around the Federal Reserve, the cause for fighting inflation right now, and what's ultimately going to happen as the economy heals from the COVID-19 situation.