Spicer out, Sanders, Scaramucci in

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White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and President Donald Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon confronted Anthony Scaramucci in the West Wing on Friday morning, threatening to block the financier’s appointment as Trump’s communications director.

Scaramucci laughed it off, according to a person familiar with the exchange, because he knew something they didn’t: He already had the job.

Now the telegenic Scaramucci, a fast-talking fixture on the international circuit from Davos, Switzerland, to his own lavish hedge fund conference in Las Vegas, is at the center of power in the chaotic Trump White House. He is now charged with repairing a toxic relationship between the press and a president who regularly rips what he calls the “fake news media.”

At a White House briefing on Friday, Scaramucci—widely referred to as “The Mooch”—spoke repeatedly of his “love” for the president, to whom he said he will report. “I think there has been at times a disconnect between the way we see the president and how much we love the president and the way perhaps some of you see the president,” he said.

Invoking Wall Street lingo, he added that there might an “arbitrage spread between how well we are doing and how well some of you guys think we are doing and we are going to work hard to close that spread.”

He said deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders will be elevated to replace Spicer, who will leave in August. “The Navy S.E.A.L.s will tell you that if you want to eat an elephant, you’ve got to do it one bite at a time and Sarah and I will do that together,” he said.

People who know Scaramucci say he could be a good fit for this new challenging role. A relentless networker who emerged as a major conduit of Wall Street cash to GOP candidates in recent years, Scaramucci generally likes and respects reporters and understands they have a job to do, people inside and outside the White House say.

He is a fierce counter-puncher who emerged in recent months as a Trump favorite for his television appearances defending the president. But he also likes engaging with the press and wants to present the White House message in a positive way rather than get dragged into daily scrums.

One White House official who backed Scaramucci’s appointment said of the former hedge fund manager: “He gets that we have a First Amendment in this country and that reporters are just trying to do their jobs.”

Critics of Scaramucci’s appointment, including Spicer, argue that the former Wall Street executive has no real communications experience and could flounder in the very difficult job of representing a boss who often ignores messaging advice and simply says whatever he wants whenever he wants no matter what it means for his struggling agenda.

And Scaramucci hasn’t always embraced the same commitment to transparency he talked about from the podium on Friday. A few years ago, while interviewing PR firms, he was blunt about what he was looking for, according to one person present for the meeting. During the 90-minute meeting, Scaramucci told this person: “I need someone who’s prepared to go to the mat and lie for me.”

One thing Scaramucci has right now is the admiration of the president for his many appearances on cable TV. That’s something Spicer, demoted from his on-camera job speaking for the president, sorely lacked.

One thing Scaramucci has right now is the admiration of the president for his many appearances on cable TV. That’s something Spicer, demoted from his on-camera job speaking for the president, sorely lacked.

Scaramucci, 53, was not always such a big Trump backer.

Scaramucci was never quite “Never Trump” but he was critical of the GOP candidate on Twitter during the primaries, something Democrats gleefully noted on Friday. In an August, 2015 appearance on Fox Business, Scaramucci referred to Trump as “another hack politician” who would become “president of the Queens County Bullies Association.” Scaramucci said Friday he has repeatedly apologized to Trump for his comments.

Scaramucci left Goldman in 1996 and began a hedge fund career that included the founding of SkyBridge in 2005. In 2009, Scaramucci launched the SkyBridge Alternatives “SALT” Conference in Las Vegas, an event that quickly became a star-studded extravaganza featuring the likes of Magic Johnson and Kevin Spacey along with top politicians from both parties and senior Wall Street bankers.

Scaramucci became a regular on financial television including CNBC and later re-launched the defunct “Wall Street Week,” made famous by Louis Rukeyser, and sold the broadcast rights for the show to Fox.