Anthony Scaramucci, who served as one of Donald Trump's press secretaries during his first administration, has predicted that the president could be asked to leave office after the midterm elections. He made the prediction Sunday on an episode of "The Daily Beast Podcast" hosted by Joanna Coles, and he said the risk would grow if Trump sits down with Russian President Vladimir Putin and China's Xi Jinping to discuss ending Russia's war in Ukraine.
"If that meeting were to happen, then I would tell you that the Republican Party is completely dead," Scaramucci said. He added that Trump "should be very careful with that, because he's going to push the envelope where he may be asked to leave the presidency." He also argued that Democrats would not need to win the Senate for such a scenario to be plausible. "Let's say they split and they go 50-50 [in the Senate]. You need 17 Republicans who have had enough of him," he said. "They hate his guts."
The comments come as Trump's standing within the Republican Party has weakened over his second term. Polling indicates that just 37% of Republicans disapprove of his handling of the economy. Trump's strikes against Iran and his deal to buy Russian oil have also rankled the party's base, according to the report.
The president has been travelling heavily ahead of the midterms. A separate report on Air Force One passengers says Trump has logged about 70 hours aboard the aircraft this month as he moves from rally to rally to bolster Republican candidates. Those aboard include White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, special envoy Steve Witkoff, who has been trying to negotiate an end to the Iran war that has weighed on Republicans' midterm prospects, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who most often travels with the president and highlights new factory investments at rallies. David Cohen, a political science professor at the University of Akron, said the passenger list signals who has the president's ear, noting that those who travel with him are "the ones who are going to be whispering in his ear."
Scaramucci's prediction is a personal assessment from a former insider and is not a development in any formal process to remove Trump from office. The report does not describe any scheduled meeting between Trump, Putin and Xi, and the forecast rests on the political pressure Scaramucci expects the president to face in the coming months.