Anthony Scaramucci, who was briefly White House director of communications in 2017, has admitted he is ‘terrified’ for national security following the latest round of leaks and scandals by the Trump administration
A former White House staffer under Donald Trump has confessed he’s “terrified” about the implications for national security due to recent leaks and scandals from the 47th President’s team.
Anthony Scaramucci, briefly the White House Communications Director in 2017, disclosed that there are genuine fears over Trump’s lax attitude towards national security matters.
On their podcast ‘The Rest is Politics US’, Scaramucci confided to co-host Katty Kay: “I’m terrified! There are former cabinet officials that I talk to all the time in the Secretary of Defence. Terrified.”
His concerns follow the incident known as ‘SignalGate’, where Trump’s national security advisor Mike Waltz mistakenly added journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to a Signal group with senior officials discussing potential military action in Yemen.
Goldberg, discussing the fiasco on NBC’s Meet the Press, dismissed the idea that it was just an accident as Waltz suggested – his number had been ‘sucked’ into Waltz’s phone by mistake, reports the Irish Star.
Jeffrey humorously remarked: “This isn’t ‘The Matrix’. Phone numbers don’t just get sucked into other phones. You know, very frequently in journalism, the most obvious explanation is the explanation. My phone number was in his phone because my phone number is in his phone.”
In the midst of ‘SignalGate’, rising concerns have emerged over the extent to which classified information is being shared with individuals lacking proper security clearance, amidst reports that Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth might be sharing sensitive details with his partner.
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Reports from the Wall Street Journal indicate that Mr Hegseth has allowed his wife to sit in on high-level Defence Department meetings, which even included foreign leaders – a revelation that’s rocked both commentators and the electorate, especially as Hegseth faces growing calls for his resignation.
Amidst this controversy, President Trump is gearing up to impose what’s been dubbed his ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs worldwide, a move that could spell job losses in the UK and price hikes for everyday Americans.
To mitigate the tariffs’ impact, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has been earnestly negotiating with US officials, aiming to soften the blow without entering into a trade spat with allies like Europe and Canada.
While Starmer stands strong on his stance of avoiding retaliation against the US despite its economic assault on friends, the Liberal Democrats are urging the Prime Minister to stand up to what they label as an “unreliable partner”.
The Liberal Democrats’ foreign affairs spokesperson, Calum Miller, issued a statement overnight saying: “Trump has shown himself to be an unreliable partner on the economy. No one, not even the US’s oldest allies, are safe from the economic harm reaped by this White House. We need to end this trade war as quickly as possible.
“That means working with our Canadian and European allies in a united front against Trump, including retaliatory tariffs where necessary – as well as negotiating a bespoke new customs union agreement with the EU to better protect British businesses.”
However, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson stated that the UK would not react excessively to the incoming levies. Speaking to the BBC, she said: “I think what [the British people] want, and what business and industry wants, is to for us to maintain a calm and quite pragmatic approach during this time and not engage in a kneejerk response, because the last thing that anybody would want is a trade war with the US.”