By Peter Aitken
Politics Weekend Editor
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Former Donald Trump aide Anthony Scaramucci has told Newsweek he believes the President-elect's hold over the Republican Party may fade once he can no longer hold office, leaving the party's fate up for grabs in four years' time.
Speaking as a Republican himself, Scaramucci said: "There could be a big fight for the control of the party, what I would call 'rationalists,' from hard-right, ultraright ideologues."
"I'm hoping that the rationalists can take over again. It's not dead yet."
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He added: "These Republicans in the Senate are telling people quietly, hey, he's a lame duck. Hey, we've only got one more substantial election coming up—that's the congressional election."
He said one sign that the rationalists of the party are still alive is the way they reacted to Trump's pick of Matt Gaetz for Attorney General. Scaramucci said he still has "faith because these Republicans in the Senate have given him the finger on Matt Gaetz."
Gaetz said he withdrew his name amid a probe into sexual allegations which he strongly denied because it "was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition."
Newsweek reached out to the Trump transition team by email on Thursday morning for comment.
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Who is Anthony Scaramucci?
Scaramucci enjoys a rare position of having worked in both the first Trump administration and advising the Harris campaign in the 2024 U.S. election. Scaramucci proved one of the more vocal critics of the former president following his brief tenure as White House communications director—a stretch of only 11 days from July 21 to July 31, 2017.
However, Scaramucci's criticism continues to vex Trump, who cannot help commenting on his former employee. Most recently, Trump took to Truth Social in the days after his 2024 election win to hit out at Scaramucci as "a major loser who was fired from the administration after only 11 days for his insane 'brother from another mother' interview with Chris Cuomo, then with CNN."
Scaramucci wears Trump's insult with pride, referencing it with his typical self-deprecating humor on the podcast he cohosts with Katty Kay, The Rest is Politics US. He has repeatedly admitted that he got the election wrong, much as the wider media did.
In a postelection interview with Business Insider, Scaramucci gave Trump credit for winning "fair and square" and said that he hoped Trump would "succeed" in his second administration.
"I'm an American citizen, and I love my country, and I want him to succeed," 60-year-old Scaramucci said. "I'm not going to whine about it. I mean, it's over."
In a special U.S. election episode of the The Rest is Politics podcast Scaramucci had suggested he would consider registering as an Independent in the face of Trump's seemingly overwhelming win, but he dismissed that in the Newsweek interview.
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Can the U.S. have a viable third-party candidate?
"It can't happen. It won't happen," Scaramucci said of a possible and viable third party in the U.S. electorate, noting that Trump is effectively a third-party candidate who managed to execute a "hostile takeover" of the Republican Party.
"You can't have a third-party United States, Ross Perot killed that," Scaramucci said. "Ross Perot ran for president, got 19.9 percent of the vote, scared the daylights out of those two parties. They went on lockdown. They got together, shook hands, gave the pinkie to each other."
Trump made a good-faith third-party bid in 2000 as a candidate for the Reform Party—the same party Perot ran for in his second, less successful presidential bid—but he suspended his campaign before primaries got underway amid fracturing support and the loss of his greatest backer, Jesse Ventura, who exited the party in February of that year.
"He [Trump] tried to run as a Reform Party candidate in 2000 and recognized, OK, there's no path for me, so he went Republican," Scaramucci said, adding that Trump had been both a Democrat and a Republican before he ran for president in 2016. "He went Republican, and he took over that party. He did an M&A (mergers and acquisitions) transaction of the Republican Party."
"So you're here now," Scaramucci mused. "You're going to be dealing with Donald Trump for the next four years, but I'd have somewhat some restoration and faith because these Republicans in the Senate have given him the finger on Matt Gaetz."
Republican Resistance to Cabinet Nominees
President-elect Donald Trump has faced some unexpected pushback on a number of his nominees for Cabinet positions, including Gaetz, Trump's initial pick for U.S. attorney general. But Gaetz is just one headache for the Trump transition team: Pete Hegseth—a former Fox News commentator, Army National Guard veteran, and Trump's pick for secretary of defense—has faced his own onslaught of allegations that has increased opposition to his confirmation.
A sexual assault allegation from 2017 resurfaced in the week following Hegseth's nomination, along with allegations of excessive drinking—including while on the job. His attorney has dismissed allegations as "outlandish" and he has denied accusations. Hegseth has vowed to "fight like hell" to secure confirmation and pledged to quit drinking if confirmed.
The list goes on, with concerns over Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s nomination for secretary of health and human services, Tulsi Gabbard as director of national security and, most recently, Kash Patel as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI).
The sentiment ahead of Trump announcing most of these nominations settled on the belief that the President-elect would face very little resistance, with allies and senior Republican figures insisting in the aftermath of party victories in the White House and Congress (winning both the House and Senate) Trump a mandate to fully pursue his agenda—including nominations.
However, the resistance to his more controversial nominees has given some critics, including Scaramucci, more cause for optimism that the party has not fully succumbed to Trump's influence: The president-elect also suffered a major blow when Senate Republicans voted to elect South Dakota Senator John Thune the new Senate Republican leader.
Trump allies had very openly urged the Senate to pick Florida Senator Rick Scott, but Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, the outgoing Senate Republican Leader, called an earlier-than-expected vote and allowed a secret ballot—both of which MAGA Republicans argued were moves to allow the party to pick someone like Thune.
Scaramucci often jokes on his podcast that he will have to go into hiding following his opposition to Trump, but these developments of internal resistance to Trump from more traditional Republican quarters must make him feel he won't have to hide for too long.
"Now what's going to happen to some of these other species nominees? I don't know. We'll have to see," said Scaramucci.
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