Donald Trump “hates” the Republican Party and they hate him back, according to the president’s former press secretary Anthony Scaramucci.
Speaking to HuffPost UK, Scaramucci – who was fired after just 11 days in the White House back in 2016 – welcomed the US midterm results after Trump’s party was brutally punished by American voters.
The Democrats ended up taking both the Senate and the House of Representatives in a major blow for the Republican president.
A growing body of Republicans – including vice president JD Vance – have publicly blamed the war in Iran and Trump’s tariff scheme for pushing up the cost of living in America, which they say was to blame for the party’s catastrophic defeat.
It’s a stark contrast to the way Republicans have bent the knee to the president over the years in increasingly alarming ways.
Attention is now turning to who will be the Republican candidate in the 2028 presidential election – with Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio among those in the running.
But according to Scaramucci, Trump “doesn’t care” about who will lead the party after him.
“He almost wants Gavin Newsom to be his successor,” the co-host of the Rest is Politics US podcast said, referring to the Democratic governor of California who has an ongoing feud with the president.
He said that would be akin to Trump putting his middle finger up at the Republican Party.
“By the way, he hates them [Republican Party] and they hate him,” Scaramucci, who is still a member of the party, claimed.
Scaramucci also predicted that Trump would accept the midterms result – unlike when he lost the 2020 presidential election – and will likely work with the Democrats going forward.
“Whatever you think he’s going to do, he’s wants to do the opposite. If he takes consensus of what people think, he’ll do the opposite. That’s his nature,” Scaramucci claimed.
“He always likes to do the opposite of what everybody thinks. He is such a narcissist, that he wants to be able to say to people, ‘you guys were nobodies before I got here and you’re nobodies after I leave.’”
Scaramucci also suggested Vance and Marco Rubio should try to distance themselves from Trump as much as possible ahead of the 2028 presidential campaign.
“They’re very ambitious guys. I would be racing out of the room right now, I’m not running. Stay in the administration,” he said. “They got to get some distance between themselves and Trump.”
He also predicted Florida governor Ron DeSantis would “make a very big play” to be the Republican candidate for 2028, though he would have to deal with being seen as “MAGA-lite” first.
Scaramucci also rejected speculation around the president’s health.
He said: “I’m not a doctor but I’m a Trump observer, I’ve known for him for 30 years. He is in neuro-degenerate decline, physio-decline, related to age. He does not have dementia. He does have some venous insufficiencies, sufficient with his age and general lack of exercise other than playing golf.
“He’s not in bad shape or an idiot. He just did 24 rallies in 19 days. If you think about why he looks so subdued, he had his ass kicked. But he’s also exhausted.”
Scaramucci said it was clear from Trump’s bizarre final campaign speech earlier this week – where he ranted about the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool – that the president is feeling “completely flat as a pancake” and he is exhausted.
“He’s burnt out to a cinder, [but] his whole mind is vigorous for an 80 year old man who has the responsibility of the presidency,” he said.
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