‘Malevolence, cruelty’: Scaramucci issues warning on what four more years of Trump means

With Donald Trump looking to return to the White House, his one-time director of communications Anthony Scaramucci has warned that the former president’s “malevolence” and “cruelty” could be costly to the United States and the world.

In a wide-ranging interview with 7.30, Mr Scaramucci, who was sacked by the previous Trump administration after just 11 days in his role, spoke on Kamala Harris, the upcoming US election and what he sees as the dangers of a second Trump White House.

Mr Scaramucci believes that what Trump stands for and represents is dangerous.

“You can’t have the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbour, and you can’t have Lincoln talking at the Lincoln Douglas debates about it being the last best place for all mankind and the need for all of us to suppress our tribal instincts and unify, and then have Trump.

“He’s an anti-American presidential candidate.”

A major fear for Mr Scaramucci is that Trump will run an isolationist United States that will repeal trade agreements and pull out of NATO, potentially leaving Russian President Vladimir Putin unchecked.

Trump has already said he would cut US funding to Ukraine as it continues to fight a war, after Russia invaded in 2022.

But Mr Scaramucci warns that Trump would do much more to enable Putin, who he courted a political relationship with during his presidency.

“There are three big dangers,” Mr Scaramucci told 7.30.

“The first danger is that he wants to destabilise the current world order, so he’ll roll back the WWII rules-based society, which, at least in North America and in Europe, is NATO.

Mr Putin’s war in Ukraine has already caused the estimated loss of hundreds of thousands of lives.

There have been other ructions too, especially in northern Europe.

There were flashpoints at the Finland border in late 2023 as an influx of asylum seekers tried to cross into the Nordic nation, which resulted in Finland closing the border with Russia.

Finland also began construction on a 200-kilometre fence on its Russian border, while they and Sweden, longstanding non-NATO nations, moved to join and were successful.

Mr Scaramucci said that was a sign of Mr Putin’s ambition and that Trump rolling back NATO would only enable the Russian leader.

“They’re smart people in those two countries [and] they’re telling you that they feel a danger from Vladimir Putin,” he said.

At a February campaign rally in South Carolina, Trump said he would let Russia “do whatever the hell they want” to NATO countries that did not spend enough.

The BBC reported that in 2020, Trump told President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen that “NATO is dead”.

Isolationist US and Project 2025

Mr Scaramucci believes a second Trump White House would not only abandon NATO but become more isolationist.

“He wants to put on exorbitant tariffs, he wants to reject immigrants.

“He’s calling for a deportation of 15 million people.

“That’s in Project 2025 and it comes out of his mouth almost every night at these rallies.”

Project 2025 is what the director of a network of conservative groups, Paul Dans, described to Four Corners as a detailed “battle plan” that has the people trained and ready to execute it.

The plan would see the power of the US president expanded and the civil service stacked in his favour.

Opponents of the plan warn that it would see Trump empowered, enabled and emboldened and push the USA towards an authoritarian state.

Trump has said he has “nothing to do” with Project 2025 but Mr Scaramucci says the former president’s goals are not that different.

“There are 14 million people that work for the government, 12 million that are employed, 2 million contractors,” Mr Scaramucci said.

“He wants the top 50,000 people to be fired.”

“He put 85 loyalists into the project.

Trump’s own campaign page says he wants to stop migrants and seal the US border as well as “carry out the largest deportation in American history” as its top two objectives.

However, it does not state any changes to the US civil service or the way government operates.

‘A Trumpist party’

The upcoming US election has been turned on its head since US President Joe Biden stepped down as the Democratic candidate and Vice-President Kamala Harris took his place.

Mr Scaramucci, like many analysts, believes it was a move that changed the election, with Ms Harris a genuine chance of defeating a Republican party that has been lurching farther to the right.

A self-described lifelong Republican, Mr Scaramucci has described it as being a party of hoopla about one man: Donald J Trump.

“This is a Trumpist party,” Mr Scaramucci said.

“He has a group of acolytes now with him that are hard right.

“He had more mid Republicans, middle-ground Republicans and careerist Republicans with him in 2016 but he doesn’t have that now, those people have left him.

“He’s got 40 people that served him in various capacities, in the cabinet, including his vice-president [Mike Pence] that are denouncing him and explaining the danger of him.

“He’s got this new group of people that are to the hard right, and they’re very well-organised, which makes him more dangerous.

“He’s not an ideological person himself, but he’s now adhered to ideological people.”

Kamala Harris has ‘shaken’ Trump

Standing in Trump’s way is Ms Harris and Mr Scaramucci says the exit of Mr Biden has meant Trump has had to pivot his attack plan but has yet to master it when it comes to the Democratic nominee.

“I think he’s been shaken by her but I think he’s a very adaptive guy,” Mr Scaramucci told 7.30.

“He hasn’t been able to find that yet because he was fixated on Joe Biden. He was fixated at being the younger of the two candidates in the race, and he’s also been imperilled by the demography.

“You’ve had this great demographic recirculation, so when he calls her stupid and he says she turned black and all this sort of nonsense, baby boomers were conditioned to deal with that, but the generation Zs, they don’t like it at all.”

While Mr Scaramucci praised Ms Harris as being intelligent and having a good policy record, he believes she has to be more aggressive in combating Trump on the election trail.

He says their upcoming debate will be a key moment for Ms Harris but she needs to explain her position and how she will help Americans.

“If you look at the predicted markets and so forth, he [Trump is] in the pole position.

“Her economic agenda is actually working, and Americans may not feel it today, but she can go into the heartland and she could explain to them what Joe Biden and her did, that are actually creating a good set-up for the next four years … but she’s got to get out there and articulate that.”

When it comes to November, the “rust belt” is predicted to be key. That area includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Wisconsin and parts of New York State.

Mr Scaramucci told 7.30 people there were desperate and could be attracted by Trump’s messaging.

And to win the presidency, Ms Harris will need to appeal to them.

“[These] people have become economically desperational and Trump’s message resonates with them,” Mr Scaramucci said.

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