July 21, 2017 01:16 PM UTC

Anthony Scaramucci is a Walking, Talking Meme

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• by: Colorado Pols

There’s a new Sheriff in town in the White House communications office. If you thought recently-departed spokesperson Sean Spicer was full of crap…wait until you get a load of the new guy, Anthony Scaramucci.

Today the White House held its first on-camera press briefing in weeks to introduce Scaramucci, and — hoo-boy — “the Mooch” is something else. From the Washington Post:

President Trump’s decision to bring Anthony Scaramucci into a top White House role represents a remarkable political ascension for the investment veteran, who had bounced around several Republican campaigns before striking gold as a full-throated Trump supporter.

Scaramucci, known as “the Mooch,” is in many ways cut from the same cloth as his new boss. A brash New Yorker who is comfortable jousting with the media, he is a promoter who some say carries a vindictive streak…

…This would be at least the third job in the Trump administration that Scaramucci has been offered. He was set to be director of the White House’s Office of Public Engagement, but critics within the White House blocked him from ultimately taking that post.

In June, he started working in a senior role at the U.S. Export-Import Bank, but he will have been in that job for only about a month, because he will be transitioning into the White House communications job very soon.

Scaramucci is a former hedge fund executive with little actual experience in “communications,” but he doesn’t appear to have any problem creating his own “alternate facts” about President Trump.

Scaramucci on low poll #s: “The American people are actually playing a long game, and they really love the president”

— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) July 21, 2017

Here in “reality,” President Trump’s approval ratings are historically bad. As ABC News notes:

Americans give President Donald Trump the lowest six-month approval rating of any president in polls dating back 70 years, punctuated by questions about his competence on the world stage, his effectiveness, the GOP health care plan and Russia’s role in the 2016 election.

Just 36 percent of Americans polled in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll approve of Trump’s job performance, down 6 points from his 100-day mark, itself a low. The previous president closest to this level at or near six months was Gerald Ford, at 39 percent, in February 1975.

Trump’s appointment of Scaramucci seems likely to actually increase the level of drama in the White House. Chief of Staff Reince Preibus is reportedly furious about “the Mooch” now taking the role of lead spokesperson, but Scaramucci seems to have figured out that there is job safety in talking nonsense so long as it is what Trump wants to hear:

Scaramucci on Trump’s debunked claim of 3-5 million illegal votes: “If the president says it … probably some level of truth” (there isn’t) pic.twitter.com/vli5O8ZBN5

— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) July 21, 2017