Of course Anthony Scaramucci is joining the White House. If you look at his career on Wall Street, in media, and in public life, he checks just about every box that Trump would want for a communications director—in part because there’s a remarkable level of Trumpiness to him. He’s like Trump’s younger, shorter double, except he’s a bit of a globalist and he can speak in complete sentences.
But just how similar are they?
Two-word nickname beginning with the word the? Check. Everybody calls Scaramucci “the Mooch.”
Ivy League background married to a streetwise persona? Check. Scaramucci, a 1986 graduate of Tufts University, attended Harvard Law but trades on his blue-collar roots in Port Washington, Long Island.
Ideological fluidity and willingness to switch loyalties on a dime? Check. He supported Obama in 2008, only to switch to Romney in 2012. Then he loudly opposed Trump in highly personal terms in 2015—“anti-American”—before jumping aboard the Trump train.
Eagerness to be accepted by the great and good? Check. Scaramucci became a fixture at Davos, where he was a genial presence, known for throwing parties and back-slapping. (Would that I had the foresight to shoot video of his dancing.)
Good at producing shows? Check. His annual SALT conference in Las Vegas became one of the events in the financial industry. Each year, a truly impressive list of major hedge fund investors, politicos, and celebrities would flock to the Bellagio for the conference, which was covered by CNBC and Bloomberg TV.
Clubby hospitality business catering to carnivorous rich men? Check. Scaramucci is an owner of the Hunt & Fish Club, an overpriced Midtown restaurant popular with the finance set.
Business-advice book author? Check. Last year, he published Hopping Over the Rabbit Hole: How Entrepreneurs Turn Success Into Failure.
Media hound? Oh yes. Loved appearing on financial television so much that he revived the classic PBS show Wall Street Week in Review and hosted it on Fox.
Vindictive and somewhat litigious streak? Yup. When a CNN report erroneously said that Scaramucci had met with a Russian investment bank that had government ties, he quickly got up in the network’s business, arguing that the report was defamatory and reminding CNN that he’s a lawyer. (The New York Post reported that he threatened a $100 million lawsuit.) The three senior journalists involved in the story resigned and CNN retracted the story.
Heads-I-win-tails-you-lose business model? Check. Scaramucci’s Skybridge Capital was a fund of funds, a business model that is dying because it serves its clients so poorly. Essentially, funds of funds sell access to hedge funds, affording ordinary rich people and institutions the ability to get into investment vehicles that they can’t get into on their own. But they then charge significant fees—percentage of the assets invested plus a chunk of the returns—which tends to lead to returns that lag the market. For example, since its 2003 inception Skybridge’s Series G fund has returned 6.17 percent annually. In that same time period, an investment in the S&P 500 would have returned 9.46 percent annually. That is to say, a cheap, simple passive investment would have done 50 percent better.
Profitable dealings with investors from nondemocratic country? Check. Earlier this year, Scaramucci sold Skybridge’s hedge-fund business. The buyers were an entity called RON Transatlantic Advisors and HNA Capital, a subsidiary of China’s sprawling HNA Group.
Oh, and leering objectifier of women? Check.
In other words, Trump and his new communications head are perfect for each other. Which is either poetic—or just terrible.
