Trump sacks chief of staff Reince Priebus 24 hours after his new communications chief goes on obscene rant about him
Donald Trump has appeared to have sacked his chief of staff Reince Priebus, 24 hours after his new communications head went on an obscene rant about him.
In a string of tweets Trump announced tonight that he had appointed John Kelly as White House Chief of Staff, effectively confirming that Priebus is gone.
CNN has since reported Priebus 'resigned privately' on Thursday.
Kelly is a retired general who currently heads the Department of Homeland Security.
Announcing Kelly as White House Chief of Staff, Trump called him a "Great American" and "a Great Leader" before applauding his work as the face of border security.
It comes after Trump's communications chief threatened to sack his entire staff and accused the White House chief strategist of wanting to "suck his own c**k" in a furious rant over leaked dinner plans.
Anthony Scaramucci, who was appointed White House Communications Director last week, was so furious that Trump's dinner with a Fox News chief executive and host had been leaked it led to a sweary phone call with a reporter on Wednesday.
During the call, he demanded to know who had leaked the plans, threatening to sack the White House communications staff one-by-one until he got to the source.
He accused Trump's now former Chief of Staff Priebus, with whom Scaramucci has a long-running feud, of trying to "c**k block" his appointment to Trump's top team.
And he used a very colourful metaphor to insist he had no interest in the widespread media attention his appointment had garnered.
"I’m not Steve Bannon," he said, referring to Trump's chief strategist and the former boss of far-right blog Breitbart.
"I'm not trying to suck my own c**k. I'm not trying to build my own brand off the f***ing strength of the President. I'm here to serve the country.
Speaking to New Yorker reporter Ryan Lizza, he demanded to know the source of the leak.
He said: "You’re an American citizen, this is a major catastrophe for the American country. So I’m asking you as an American patriot to give me a sense of who leaked it."
The row stemmed from the revelation that Trump had dined with the first lady, Fox News host Sean Hannity and news executive Bill Shine.
It led to speculation that Hannity, a fervent supporter of Trump, was giving the President strategic advice, and Shine could be in line for a West Wing job.
The reporter refused to reveal the source of the story.
Scaramucci, known by colleagues as "The Mooch", told him: "What I’m going to do is, I will eliminate everyone in the comms team and we’ll start over."
He later added that he wanted to "f***ing kill" all the leakers in a bid to get Trump's agenda "back on track."
He added: “I made a mistake in trusting a reporter. It won't happen again.”
Scaramucci's appointment as comms director was a controversial move.
Trump wanted to bring him on board at the beginning of his Presidency, but it was reportedly vetoed by Priebus - a Republican insider who was made Trump's theoretical right-hand man as a conciliatory move to the party's congressional leadership.
Trump revealed he'd appointed Scaramucci to the vacant comms role, over the head of former press secretary Sean Spicer, who had been covering the job on an interim basis.
And he branded Priebus a "f*****g paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac."
Spicer, seen as one of Priebus' few allies in the West Wing, resigned from his job in protest.
Spicer's role as press secretary had been gradually eroded in recent months, with his briefings largely taking place off-camera and public statements being made by deputy Sarah Huckabee-Sanders.
It's since been revealed Scaramucci reports directly to the President, not to the Chief of Staff.
During the astonishing phone call, Scaramucci hinted he had more information he planned to use to damage White House rivals in retaliation for a second leak of his financial documents, which he said was a "felony."
Referring to himself in the third person, he told Lizza: "O.K., the Mooch showed up a week ago. This is going to get cleaned up very shortly, O.K.? Because I nailed these guys. I’ve got digital fingerprints on everything they’ve done through the F.B.I. and the f*****g Department of Justice."
It was later revealed that his financial disclosure forms had not been leaked, and were publicly available.
But not before Scaramucci had tweeted - and quickly deleted - an apparent threat to Priebus, saying: "In light of the leak of my financial info which is a felony. I will be contacting @FBI and the @TheJusticeDept #swamp @Reince45."
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