The rise and fall of Anthony Scaramucci and John McCain saves Obamacare

In the fourth instalment of our series recapping an unprecedented presidency, Joe Sommerlad looks at the ‘front stabber’ who lasted just 11 days in the White House and the president’s wrath towards a dying man

The one and only Anthony Scaramucci (AP)

Post-covfefe, the White House’s messaging would only get more farcical on 21 July 2017 when Donald Trump brought in one Anthony Scaramucci, a brawling Long Islander and ex-Goldman Sachs trader popularly known as “the Mooch”, as a substitute for the beleaguered Sean Spicer.

Trump had grown dissatisfied with the future Dancing with the Stars contestant’s performance behind the lectern, Spicer having lost face over the inauguration crowd spat and become a meme when he unwisely wore an emerald-coloured tie on St Patrick’s Day, inadvertently providing internet wags with the perfect greenscreen backdrop for photoshopping surreal images onto his chest.

The Mooch certainly talked a good game, assuring the BBC’s Emily Maitlis he would restore order because he was a “straight shooter” who came from a long line of “front stabbers” (shivving an enemy between the shoulder blades, rather than confronting them face to face, was the work of a craven coward in his book).