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Trump’s communications chief in foul-mouthed tirade over leaks

Donald’s Trump’s new communications director has launched a foul-mouthed tirade at two senior colleagues – opening the door to an all-out civil war among those most-trusted by the US president. Euronews, committed to bringing a range of views to its readers, has printed all the profanities, which could be offensive to some people. Anthony Scaramucci’s rant at Reince Priebus, Trump’s chief of staff, and Steve Bannon, the president’s chief strategist, came in a phone conversation with New Yorker correspondent Ryan Lizza. Scaramucci was angry Lizza had tweeted the communications director was to have a White House dinner with Trump, Fox News host Sean Hannity, and former Fox News executive Bill Shine. Lizza refused to tell Scaramucci who had leaked this to him, prompting the latter to reportedly say: “You’re an American citizen, this is a major catastrophe for the American country. So I’m asking you as an American patriot to give me a sense of who leaked it.” Scaramucci then became convinced the leaker was Reince Priebus, Trump’s chief of staff, who he told Lizza was a “fucking paranoid schizophrenic”. This is thought to be a reference to allegations Priebus had leaked the dinner details because he was upset he hadn’t been invited. Scaramucci, speaking as if he was Priebus, continued: “Oh, Bill Shine is coming in. Let me leak the fucking thing and see if I can cock-block these people the way I cock-blocked Scaramucci for six months.” Cock-blocking is slang for an action – sometimes unintentional – that prevents someone from having sex. But Scaramucci is not thought to be using it in a literal sense; he’s substituting ‘sex’ for a ‘job in Trump’s team’. He is thought to have long blamed Priebus for keeping him out of the White House when Trump took office in January. The newly-appointed communications director, responding to criticism he was courting media attention with recent interviews, went on to mock his colleague Bannon. He said: “I’m not Steve Bannon, I’m not trying to suck my own cock. I’m not trying to build my own brand off the fucking strength of the president. I’m here to serve the country.” Scaramucci, who is suggesting Bannon has a too higher opinion of himself, suggested there could be personnel changes among Trump’s team. “What I’m going to do is, I will eliminate everyone in the comms team and we’ll start over,” he reportedly told Lizza. “They’ll all be fired by me. I fired one guy the other day. I have three to four people I’ll fire tomorrow. I’ll get to the person who leaked that to you. Reince Priebus – if you want to leak something – he’ll be asked to resign very shortly.” Scaramucci later made reference to his conversation with Lizza, saying he will try to rein in his “colourful language” His crackdown on White House leak is thought to be an attempt to please Trump, who claims such actions represent a national security threat. I sometimes use colorful language. I will refrain in this arena but not give up the passionate fight for realDonaldTrump’s agenda. #MAGA— Anthony Scaramucci (Scaramucci) July 27, 2017 I made a mistake in trusting in a reporter. It won’t happen again.— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) July 28, 2017