It's "absolutely impossible" to get all of the leaks coming from the White House down to zero, but if there are "senior people" inside the Trump administration trying to get people to leak information about each other, that will be coming to an immediate stop, new White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci said Wednesday.
"We have to crack down on leaks on a number of different fronts," Scaramucci told Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program. "There seem to be some holdovers, political holdovers from the Obama administration who are not helping."
Scaramucci said he does have "the full responsibility here in the comm shop, which I do believe will get corrected shortly," but he would not comment specifically if assistant press secretary Michael Short, who resigned Tuesday following reports that he was going to be fired, was one of the leakers.
Scaramucci said leaks concerning whether firing Short hurt his ability to let employees go in a "humane" way, and he does not want to hurt the former employee's reputation.
"I honestly don't know him personally, so I don't want to comment on that specifically," said Scaramucci. "What I'm going to do for him is what I have done for everybody at Sky Bridge, my old company, going to help him try to find a job. He is a young guy. People make mistakes in life."
However, he conceded that people don't get second chances at the White House, even if he is a "big believer in redemption."
"We have to fix this," Scaramucci said. "We have to fix it immediately because it's for our country and our president."
Scaramucci also commented on revelations that Attorney General Jeff Sessions is close to announcing an investigation into intelligence leaks, noting that the announcement about the plan will be either on Thursday or next week.
Meanwhile, the new communications director also addressed concerns that Trump is harassing Sessions on Twitter, telling the program that people who work for Trump "have to have a tough exoskeleton."
"I would tell people to stay tough," he said. "The president likes tough people. We don't want to fight like an Italian family for no reason. We want to fight for the right reasons. Right?"
He said he also does not think Trump is undermining Sessions, after criticizing him for recusing himself from the investigation into Russian activities during the 2016 election.
"What the president is trying to do is signal to people, 'I need your loyalty, I need advocacy,'" said Scaramucci.
He also said Trump "doesn't look like the typical president," and that he understands him as a fellow New Yorker.
Trump shows that in his tweets, Scaramucci said, including one pointed at Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who voted against the debate legislation passed in the Senate on Obamacare Tuesday.
"To me, that's a classic New Yorker, letting you know exactly how you feel," said Scaramucci. "What I don't like about Washington is people do not let you know how they feel. They're very nice to your face and then they take a shiv or a machete and stab it in your back. I don't like it. I'm a Wall Street guy and more of a front-stabbing person."
There also are reports of tensions between the White House and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, but Scaramucci said he does not know yet if that means the former Exxon/Mobil CEO's time is limited.
"I will get back to you on it, but here is what I would say, Rex had a phenomenal career," said Scaramucci. "We were at the Boy Scout event two days ago in West Virginia. He was an Eagle Scout. They always try to do the right thing. My guess is we'll get this in harmony and get the communications going in a direction that the president will like. "
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.