Sidelined for months, financier and 401(k) Specialist cover boy Anthony Scaramucci will finally get a coveted position (for him) in the administration, with a big thanks to CNN.
The Elizabeth Warren adversary was once promised top billing by Trump—think Karl Rove, Valerie Jarrett, along those lines—only to see his fortunes fall after divesting his business by selling to a Chinese conglomerate.
The ethics review in doing so took too long, and Priebus and Bannon weren’t about to wait; they had health care to destroy and immigrants to ban, dang it!
The president was reminded just how influential Scaramucci could be after news made at the latter’s SALT hedge fund conference in May. The annual confab is a who’s who of entertainment, investment and political personalities that’s outright amazing (take a look at the speaker list).
It’s where Joe Biden dropped the H-bomb, telling attendees he never thought Clinton “was a great candidate.”
He then reportedly called powerhouse fund manager Bill Ackman a Biden-esque word after a verbal dispute at a private dinner later that night (Biden and Ackman are now side-by-side on the event’s website. Coincidence? Hardly).
Publicity like this is incredibly useful, and Trump will park “the Mooch” at the Export-Import Bank with designs on something larger, according to Politico. EXIM was once disparaged by the president, but he now apparently finds value.
And maybe Trump felt a twinge of guilt—no, seriously. After requiring Scaramucci to divest in order to join the team, he was suddenly out, while the president (and Ivanka, Jared, etc.) still retains business holdings. Like so much about the administration, the good-for-me, not-for-thee attitude just didn’t sit right.
The final push came last week when Trump nemesis CNN published a piece that had ‘Russkie lover’ written all over it, smearing Scaramucci with Russia-collusion allegations. The reporting was bogus, the network was forced to retract, three employees were fired and the brand took a hit for the seemingly gazillionth time.
He was in, out and now in again. One thing we’ve learned about Scaramucci since our cover profile in January is that he, like the administration, should never be underestimated, no matter how seemingly ridiculous, and any decisions made, including the fiduciary rule, are always far from settled.
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.
