He was brought in to be the smooth-talking face of a troubled administration, refining the message and rebranding a chaotic White House beset by chaos and riven by infighting.
Instead, during a foul-mouthed tirade delivered to a magazine journalist, communications chief Anthony Scaramucci has turned a simmering feud into a public war and hurled deeply personal insults at Reince Priebus, White House chief of staff, and Steve Bannon, chief strategist.
In so doing, the man appointed to be a PR Mr Fixit has apparently fallen foul of the simplest rule: knowing what is and is not being said on the record.
Mr Scaramucci, a New York financier who was appointed last week, told a reporter from the New Yorker that Mr Priebus was a “paranoid schizophrenic” who would soon be asked to resign.
And he accused Mr Bannon of riding on the president’s coat-tails in an effort to build his own brand.
It all began when Mr Scaramucci telephoned the news channel CNN for an unscheduled interview on Thursday morning and all but accused Mr Priebus of leaking against him.
"The fish stinks from the head down," he said. "I can tell you two fish that don't stink, and that's me and the president."
Hours later, Ryan Lizza, of the New Yorker, published an account of an expletive-laden telephone conversation with the man who had arrived at the White House as a smoot- talking TV pro.
His apparent reason for telephoning was to hunt for leakers in the administration. In particular, he was furious that Mr Lizza had obtained details of a private White House dinner.
"They'll all be fired by me," he said. "I fired one guy the other day. I have three to four people I'll fire tomorrow. I'll get to the person who leaked that to you.
“Reince Priebus — if you want to leak something — he'll be asked to resign very shortly.
The animosity between them is well-known. Earlier this year, Mr Scaramucci put his hedge fund up for sale in preparation for taking up a White House job. However, the move was blocked by Mr Priebus, and the Mooch – as he known to friends – was shifted into an alternative post at the Export-Import bank.
Mr Priebus reportedly tried to head off Mr Scaramucci's new appointment last week and it prompted the resignation of Sean Spicer as press secretary, who feared the arrival of the New Yorker’s would promote more chaos.
Judging by the first week, he could not have been more right. Rather than steadying the ship, Mr Scaramucci has provided more headlines about upheaval and made the cardinal sin of becoming the story.
However, some observers point out that his New York roots,his bombastic style, and non-stop Twitter presence make him a perfect fit for this administration.
“The Mooch is a New Yorker like me,” Rudolph Giuliani, the former mayor and an adviser to Mr Trump, told the New York Times. “He’s a purebred New Yorker. He’s lit a firecracker in that place. What you’re seeing in Scaramucci is the president’s style.”
Mr Trump is also known for an approach to management that pits competing centres of power against each other.
To critics it is a recipe for exactly the sort of divisions that Mr Scaramucci exposed. To supporters it is a way of getting results.
“This is a White House that has lots of different perspectives because the president hires the very best people,” is how Sarah Huckerbee Sanders, White House press secretary put it in the hours between Mr Scaramucci’s spontaneous CNN interview and the New Yorker article appearing.
“With that competition, you usually get the best results. The president likes that kind of competition and encourages it.”
For his part, Mr Scaramucci blamed Mr Lizza for reporting their conversation.
“I made a mistake in trusting in a reporter. It won't happen again,” he said on Twitter.
With details of competing power centres jostling for influence making headlines once again, it emerged that Derek Harvey, a senior Middle East adviser, had been fired from the National Security Council.
He was appointed by Gen Michael Flynn, who was dismissed as National Security Adviser in February, and held hawkish views on Iran and global jihadism. Some observers said he had grown close to the Bannonite wing of the White House, making him vulnerable to the more establishment-focused national security team led by Gen HR McMaster.
“General McMaster greatly appreciates Derek Harvey's service to his country as a career Army officer, where he served his country bravely in the field and played a crucial role in the successful surge in Iraq, and also for his service on Capitol Hill and in the Trump administration,” said an NSC spokesman.
President Donald Trump tweeted that along with the Democrats they had “let the American people down”.
The latest version of the bill, a so-called “skinny” repeal, leaving out many of the Republicans’ most controversial ideas, is the third failed attempt to repeal Obamacare.
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
MATCH INFO
What: Brazil v South Korea
When: Tonight, 5.30pm
Where: Mohamed bin Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Tickets: www.ticketmaster.ae
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC
Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Bio
Born in Dubai in 1994
Her father is a retired Emirati police officer and her mother is originally from Kuwait
She Graduated from the American University of Sharjah in 2015 and is currently working on her Masters in Communication from the University of Sharjah.
Her favourite film is Pacific Rim, directed by Guillermo del Toro
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Key features of new policy
Pupils to learn coding and other vocational skills from Grade 6
Exams to test critical thinking and application of knowledge
A new National Assessment Centre, PARAKH (Performance, Assessment, Review and Analysis for Holistic Development) will form the standard for schools
Schools to implement online system to encouraging transparency and accountability
Episode list:
Ep1: A recovery like no other- the unevenness of the economic recovery
Ep2: PCR and jobs - the future of work - new trends and challenges
Ep3: The recovery and global trade disruptions - globalisation post-pandemic
Ep4: Inflation- services and goods - debt risks
Ep5: Travel and tourism
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Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
Veil (Object Lessons)
Rafia Zakaria
Bloomsbury Academic
BAD%20BOYS%3A%20RIDE%20OR%20DIE
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
