Three days before he was ousted from the White House, former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci told an email prankster last Friday that he wanted former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus’ and White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon’s heads to roll.
According to a CNN report, Scaramucci was “hoodwinked” by an email prankster who was “pretending to be Ambassador to Russia-designate Jon Huntsman Jr.”
“Who’s (sic) head should roll first?” the fake Huntsman reportedly asked the real Scaramucci in a Friday email before Trump announced that he was replacing Priebus with former Homeland Security Chief John Kelly. “Maybe I can help things along somewhat.”
The real Scaramucci responded, “both of them,” apparently referring to Messrs. Priebus and Bannon.
Three days later, new White House Chief of Staff John Kelly axed Scaramucci after the first week of his one-man reality show, which included a profane and off-the-rails interview with the left-wing New Yorker magazine, raised numerous red flags.
Bannon and Priebus reportedly tried to block Scaramucci from getting the White House communications director job in the first place while Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump supported Scaramucci.
Scaramucci should have realized that the email did not sound like the genteel Huntsman who is known for talking about the “trust deficit.” In fact, Huntsman himself was reportedly tricked by the prankster with a fake Eric Trump email account after Trump announced that he had chosen the former Utah governor and failed 2012 presidential candidate to be his ambassador to Russia.
Huntsman reportedly replied to the prankster, “Thanks for the thoughtful note. Russia will be a challenging but no doubt rewarding assignment.”
The same prankster also reportedly duped Scaramucci with a fake Priebus email account on the same day.