Former White House Director Anthony Scaramucci in two separate media interviews weighed in on the mood among the Republican camp and the vice president choices of both mainstream parties.
Trump Team: Following Donald Trump‘s rehiring of his ex-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, Scaramucci said notwithstanding his personal friendship with the latter, he would want to see the former defeated in November. Speaking on FOX 5 Washington DC, Scaramucci said Lewandowski was recalled because he has the ear of Trump and remained loyal to him for seven years even after he was bounced unceremoniously.
The payback now is that he is being brought back into the campaign as an insider, he added.
Scaramucci, who dons several hats as a financier, businessman and podcaster, said now there is a triumvirate – Lewandowski, Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita. The SkyBridge Capital founder said he expects one of the duo to leave the campaign following Lewandowski’s return.
The ex-White House aide said he thinks Trump is running a 2016 campaign. “He’s trying to pull out the tropes of sexism tinged with a little bit of racism. He is trying to see if those, that style could work in 2024,” the financier said, adding that “it’s a populist campaign.”
Ultimately, this is a turnout election and so Trump is going to try as hard as possible to get his voters to turn out, Scaramucci said
Trump “maxes at about 47.5% no matter which way you slice it, he just can’t get above that. He never has in his political career,” he said. That’s why the Republican party wanted Green Party’s Jill Stein in the race and Robert F Kennedy Jr in the race just so that they could slice into Vice President Kamala Harris’ support, he added.
Scaramucci predicted that Trump would lose as he is getting “boring,” “old,” and “tired. He noted that the electorate has changed since 2016, with 20 million baby boomers lost since 2016 and about 40 million lower-aged Gen Z voters joining the mix. About 50% of the 18-29 year-olds voted in 2020 and this could get to at least that high of a number, if not more, he said. About 70% of them voted Democrats, he added.
The VP Picks: Trump had a big opportunity after the failed assassination attempt to go onto the podium and speak out an unifying message, something like “We got to tone down the rhetoric. It’s America. We can have differences of opinion that shouldn’t cross into violence,” Scaramucci said. “If he did that, that would have been very healing and very unifying,” he added.
Scaramucci is of the view his ex-boss would have been better off picking former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley as his running mate because he would have brought a woman onto the ticket. A Trump-Haley coalition would have been stronger than Trump-JD Vance, he said. The former president picked Vance as he wanted full credit and the Ohio senator was an ideal choice as he would let Trump drive the bus, preferring to sit at the back, he added.
Trump did not anticipate Vance was going to have this high of a negative approval rating and could hurt him on the margin, Scaramucci said.
Scaramucci, on the other hand, thinks Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is a great pick for Harris, as he is willing to take a back seat to her. “He is a good cheerleader, he has a midwestern value, which I think will play well in those rust-belt states,” he said.
Harris had the risk of being big-footed by Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who is more ambitious than Walz, he added.
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