Anthony Scaramucci, President Donald Trump’s newly-appointed communications director, has attempted to downplay previous fall-outs with his new boss - by deleting tweets that might be seen as critical of the US President.
The Wall Street millionaire had previously called Trump a “hack politician”, but made clear on Friday that the President brings it up “every 15 seconds” as he apologised once again for the remark and the pair appeared to let bygones be bygones.
Scaramucci continued to put distance between himself and his old views by announcing on Saturday he was deleting old tweets critical of Trump, or at odds with his policies, in the name of “transparency”.
Many on Twitter pounced on the comment and said truly being transparent would mean detailing how his views changed.
The process appeared to begin before he revealed his transparency drive.
Some tweets have been deleted, while some contentious ones haven’t. Here’s a brief run through what’s still up and what isn’t.
Deleted: “Odd guy.”
Scaramucci tweeted a National Journal article about Trump endorsing Newt Gingrich in the 2012 Presidential race: “Odd guy. So smart with no judgment.”
Deleted: “Walls don’t work.”
In 2015, he tweeted that “walls don’t work”, an allusion to Trump’s plan to build a wall between the United States and Mexico.
Deleted: “Enough is enough” on gun laws.
“We (the USA) has 5% of the world’s population but 50% of the world’s guns,” he wrote in the deleted tweet. “Enough is enough. It is just common sense it apply more controls.”
Live: On blaming all Muslims for terror
Scaramucci tweeted a quote from a David Cameron interview where he criticised Trump for “making a fundamental mistake of trying to blame all of Islam and all Muslims for what is the ideology and the actions of a minority”.
“It is a fight within Islam, overwhelming majority see Islam as a religion of peace, want to live in multiracial/ethnic/faith democracies,” Scaramucci tweeted.
Live: Pro-gay marriage.
Not likely to sit well with all Republicans.
Deleted: On people who say climate chanhe is a ‘hoax’.
Trump has said climate change is a Chinese plot to make the US less competitive and a money-making “hoax”. In June, Trump announced he was pulling the US out of the Paris climate accord. This is what Scaramucci tweeted:
Deleted: Hillary Clinton is ‘incredibly incompetent’.
In 2012, he tweeted he hoped Hillary Clinton - later Trump’s nemesis - became the next President, saying: “I hope she runs, she is incredibly competent.”
Live: “Dance like no-one is watching ...”
Not about Trump, but inspiring. Oh, and a misattribution to Mark Twain.
