WASHINGTON
— Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, resigned on Friday
morning, telling President Trump he vehemently disagreed with the
appointment of the New York financier Anthony Scaramucci as communications director.
Mr.
Trump offered Mr. Scaramucci the job at 10 a.m. The president requested
that Mr. Spicer stay on, but Mr. Spicer told Mr. Trump that he believed
the appointment was a major mistake, according to person with direct
knowledge of the exchange.
Mr.
Scaramucci, who founded the global investment firm SkyBridge Capital
and is a Fox News Channel contributor, is known for his spirited on-air
defense of Mr. Trump, but he also enjoys good relationships with
journalists from an array of outlets, including those the president has
labeled “fake news.”
Mr.
Spicer’s turbulent tenure as the president’s top spokesman was marked
by a combative style with the news media that spawned a caricature of him on “Saturday Night Live.”
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His
rumored departure has been one of the longest-running internal sagas in
an administration brimming with dissension and intrigue. A former
Republican National Committee spokesman and strategist, Mr. Spicer was a
frequent target of the president’s ire — and correctives — during the
first few months of the administration.
His
resignation is a blow to the White House chief of staff, Reince
Priebus, the former Republican Party chairman who brought Mr. Spicer
into the West Wing despite skepticism from Mr. Trump, who initially
questioned his loyalty.
Mr.
Scaramucci was to meet with Mr. Priebus on Friday, according to a West
Wing official — and applause could be heard in the second-floor
communications hallway when Mr. Scaramucci was introduced.
Graphic
All Joking Aside, Here’s How Sean Spicer Shook Up the White House Press Briefing
Mr. Spicer typically calls on media organizations
outside the mainstream before getting to more traditional news outlets.
During
the transition, Mr. Trump had planned to appoint Mr. Scaramucci, a
52-year-old Harvard Law graduate from Long Island, as director of his
office of public liaison, but the offer was pulled at the request of Mr.
Priebus over concerns about Mr. Scaramucci’s overseas investments.
His
appointment Friday came two months after the previous communications
director, Mike Dubke, stepped down. Mr. Trump was frustrated with Mr.
Priebus over the slow pace of finding a replacement, according to a
half-dozen people familiar with the situation.
Mr.
Trump made the appointment over the objection of Mr. Priebus, who
thought Mr. Scaramucci lacked the requisite organizational or political
experience. But the president believed Mr. Scaramucci, a ferocious
defender of Mr. Trump’s on cable television, was best equipped to play
the same role in-house, and he offered him a role with far-reaching
powers independent of Mr. Priebus’s.
Mr.
Spicer flatly rejected the president’s offer of a position subordinate
to Mr. Scaramucci, according to two administration officials familiar
with the exchange.
The
appointment of Mr. Scaramucci, a favorite of Mr. Trump’s earliest
campaign supporters, was backed by the president’s daughter Ivanka, his
son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross,
the officials said.
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