White House: Scaramucci blocked from entering without special approval

Former communications director Anthony Scaramucci is on a list of people blocked from entering the White House without special approval from top officials in the Trump administration, the White House said Friday.

A White House official confirmed to Bloomberg that Scaramucci is on a list of individuals excluded from the campus just a day after the White House denied that the Wall Street financier was on the list.

{mosads}

Scaramucci was ousted from the White House last summer over an expletive-filled rant to The New Yorker after serving as communications director for just 10 days.

Bloomberg reports that when an aide tried to get Scaramucci into the White House early last month, a Secret Service agent wrote that he was “administratively excluded from entering the complex at this time (not allowed access).”

A White House official told Bloomberg that Scaramucci wasn’t specifically targeted and that anyone who fails a background check or is fired faces the same restrictions, with similar exclusion lists existing in past administrations.

Scaramucci brushed off the move in a tweet Friday evening:

The next time I will go to Washington it will be to visit the @smithsonian https://t.co/g4iQcgi4oq

— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) March 2, 2018

The controversy comes as Scaramucci ratchets up his public battle with White House chief of staff John Kelly, the person who fired him last year.

In an interview Thursday with Bloomberg, Scaramucci went after Kelly as “General Jackass” following news that longtime Trump aide Hope Hicks would be leaving the West Wing.

“Does the president want to lose everyone because of General Jackass?” Scaramucci said, warning of a “further evacuation of talent” if Kelly wasn’t removed from his position.

Hicks announced her resignation on Wednesday, telling White House staffers that she would exit the Trump administration in the coming weeks. The 29-year-old is one of President Trump’s closest aides, serving with him since before he launched his campaign in 2015.

“There are no words to adequately express my gratitude to President Trump. I wish the president and his administration the very best as he continues to lead our country,” Hicks said in a statement Wednesday.