'Reprehensible': The Trump money grab that disgusts former adviser

Anthony Scaramucci may no longer be the shortest-tenured press secretary in the history of the White House but he is increasingly concerned about the direction of the United States under President Donald Trump.

Speaking to 7.30 after his record of 11 days in the job was broken, Mr Scaramucci highlighted issues of corruption and a Trump-led plutocracy.

"In our society now, there's a very large group of people that feel hopeless, they're despairing, and they look at the system and say, 'Oh my God, it's a two-tiered system and I'm not part of the tier that can take advantage of these things or get away with breaking the law'," Mr Scaramucci said.

"This is something that we really have to fix unless we want to further corrode society.

"This has been a phenomenal country and very heavy damage has been done to the country by the president and his family, and we have to call it out."

Asked specifically what he thought Mr Trump had failed on, his former press secretary zeroed in on tariffs, his handling of the Epstein files and committing the US to war in the Middle East.

'Reprehensible': Mooch hits out at Trump

Australia's former ambassador to the United States Joe Hockey earlier issued a warning about corruption in Washington but on Thursday Mr Scaramucci took it further, accusing Mr Trump of lining his own pockets at the expense of his own supporters.

"This is hard for me to admit ... but had he won the election in 2020, I think the world and America would've been better off because he had people around him that were running compliance and his general counsel was rock solid," Mr Scaramucci said.

"He had a group of Republicans that were more traditional in terms of the way they were handling things."

Mr Trump's personal wealth has increased significantly since his return to office.

It was revealed in his own financial disclosure in June that the president made $US1.4 billion ($2 billion) from several cryptocurrency ventures in the past year.

"And I expect him over the next two years to make billions and billions of dollars for himself."

Mr Trump and his administration have recently and repeatedly denied any corrupt dealings while he has been in office. Mr Trump said he donated his salary during his first term as president.

However Mr Scaramucci said making money was the primary driver for Mr Trump and he was using it to turn Washington DC to his financial advantage.

"He's surrounded now by plutocrats that are being very obsequious towards him," Mr Scaramucci told 7.30.

"He sees each of them as a potential money centre for him and his family. 

"People say that Washington is a swamp, and I say that Donald Trump turned Washington into a gold-plated hot tub. It's no longer a swamp. 

"He's figured out a way to get the gold plating in there and the bubbles going for everybody. 

"And don't go by me, 87 per cent of Americans when they're polled now believe that their government is corrupt."

Corruption concerns have been reported by several sources.

A Gallup poll in early September found that 89 per cent of constituents polled believed government corruption is widespread.

The figure represents a 20-year high.

A CNN poll released this week found 19 per cent of registered voters believe it it is the top issue before the US midterms, while a September Reuters/Ipsos poll put that figure at 12 per cent.

While Mr Scaramucci conceded that the Trump administration's tax cuts may have in a "small way" helped some of America's lowest earners he is of the belief voters will rail against Mr Trump at the upcoming midterm elections.

"I think these sorts of referendums are going to show you that his political power has been weakened," Mr Scaramucci told 7.30.

Witkoff, Putin and a warning

If those elections lead to the Democrats taking back control of the House and possibly the Senate, Mr Scaramucci said Democrats should not try to attack Mr Trump like they did during his last term, when the Democrat-controlled house voted to impeach him.

"I would implore them to try to come up with policies and ideas to fix the problems that the American people are after," he said.

"We know throughout history that when we go after our political adversaries, we try to jail them or we try to impeach them, we actually get the opposite effect. 

"Adolf Hitler was made more powerful by his arrest. On the more positive side, Nelson Mandela was made more powerful by his 27-year imprisonment.

"I think we have to be very careful punishing our political adversaries, no matter how bad Donald Trump is.

"What happened here in the state of New York and in the city of New York in 2024 actually weirdly made [Trump] more powerful," Mr Scaramucci said, referring to Mr Trump's 2024 conviction by a New York jury for falsifying business documents. 

"I'm really hoping that the Democrats do not go in that direction."

The Trump administration's recent openness to doing deals with Russian President Vladimir Putin is another source of concern for Mr Scaramucci.

Mr Trump recently did a deal with Russia for diesel and Mr Putin met with US envoy Steve Witkoff in St Petersburg.

The meeting led to the Kremlin announcing that Mr Putin agreed to resume three-way negotiations next month with Washington and Kyiv, aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.

Russia is still terming the war a special military operation. Since it began in February 2022, hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost.

Despite that, Russian state media posted a clip of Mr Witkoff calling Mr Putin "a humanitarian".

Mr Scaramucci said the comments were a sign of the scale of sycophancy in Mr Trump's midst.

"That's how nuts these people are that are around Donald Trump. And that's what Donald Trump and people like Vladimir Putin expect people to do, is to say lies about them," Mr Scaramucci said.

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