Founder, SkyBridge Capital
Anthony Scaramucci | Working For Trump, Astrology & An Italian-American Upbringing
It's The Mooch! Yes, today Rosebud celebrates 250 years of American independence with our final U.S. guest: the irrepressible host of the Rest Is Politics U.S., Anthony Scaramucci. In this fascinating and free-wheeling conversation, Anthony talks to Gyles about his childhood in a Long Island, in a loving and hard-working Italian-American family, with parents who managed to fit 600 years of arguments into their 60 year marriage. He talks about his high school years, when he was a self-confessed "Long Island Guido" with combed back hair, gold jewellery, and a choice of shirts hanging in the back...
About Anthony Scaramucci
Anthony Scaramucci, founder of SkyBridge Capital, has made numerous media appearances discussing Bitcoin, cryptocurrency regulation, and U.S. politics. He has argued that Bitcoin will "grind higher" due to low sentiment and limited supply, and stated that even if the Clarity Act never passes, Bitcoin could reach half the market capitalization of gold, which he estimated at $25 trillion. Scaramucci described the current period as consistent with Bitcoin's typical four-year cycle, predicting a recovery roughly nine months before the next halving in 2028. He expressed support for perpetual futures, saying "you have to accept what's coming, whether you like it or not," while acknowledging elements of them he does not like. Regarding politics, Scaramucci said President Donald Trump "likes to make money more than he likes running the presidency" and described Trump as a "Shakespearean figure" who "eats his young." He predicted that Marco Rubio and J.D. Vance "will never be president" and will go "into the Trump wood chipper." Scaramucci also stated that the Trump era is ending and that the president is "going to go out like a Roman candle." He criticized Trump's financial disclosures, alleging the president engaged in trading that benefited from his public statements, and said Trump "opened up the floodgates and became the scammer and chief" in the crypto industry. Scaramucci described himself as a tech optimist, saying "the optimists make money" and that he does not bet against Elon Musk.
Transcript (199 segments)
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Giles Brandreth0:00
Hello, I'm Giles Brandreth and this is the Rosebud Podcast. As part of our America 250 season, today our special guest is Anthony Scaramucci. The Mooch. Welcome to Rosebud. Anthony Scaramucci, do I call you Anthony?
A
Anthony Scaramucci0:18
I love the way you say the whole name. Say it just one more time for all of us because I love the way you say it.
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Giles Brandreth0:23
And I love saying it. I've been saying it a lot. Can I say in recent days knowing you were coming I've been saying, 'Oh yes, our guest is Anthony Scaramucci.'
A
Anthony Scaramucci0:31
I love it. I love the way you say it. Yeah, you can call me Anthony. I've been called Mooch. I've been called worse than Anthony and Mooch. So it's all good. Anything you want to call me.
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Giles Brandreth0:38
The 'th' is hard, isn't it? Anthony.
A
Anthony Scaramucci0:40
Yeah. Although in some cases, Anthony, I think, or Anthony like Mark Anthony, but again you can say anything you want. I guess the only thing that never happened to me for some reason, no one ever called me Tony. So I've never been called Tony.
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Giles Brandreth0:52
And yet as you're going to discover there is an Italian heritage and I think of Italian Tonys as being Tony. Anyway, you are Anthony Scaramucci, born on the 6th of January, 1964.
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Anthony Scaramucci1:04
11:00 a.m.
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Giles Brandreth1:05
At 11:00 a.m.
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Anthony Scaramucci1:06
Nassau Hospital, Mineola, New York.
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Giles Brandreth1:08
Anthony Scaramucci, what is your very first memory?
A
Anthony Scaramucci1:12
My very first memory is riding the bus. I was probably about two and a half, three years old and I was with my grandmother. Of course she didn't know how to drive and she put me on the bus with her. I can remember it because I was very young, very small, but I could remember the smells on the bus, the metallic smell. I have this vivid memory of her squeezing my hand in this overprotective position where I remember thinking, 'Wow.' I could sense her worry even though I was a young kid.
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Giles Brandreth1:50
What was this bus and who was this grandmother? Who was she? The mother?
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Anthony Scaramucci1:54
Her name was Maria Aldorata DeFeo and she was my mom's mother. Unfortunately, I never met my dad's parents. They died before I was born. But I did get to meet my grandfather and my grandmother, or my nonno and my nana as we would have said in our Italian-American community. She died when I was nine, but I was very close to her. I would say that my first nine years on Earth, I was parented by two Catholic and very tough Italian-American women. So I got hit with the wooden spoon. They would do this with their hand, you had to run, you were going to get it.
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Giles Brandreth2:38
What is that with your hand? What's happening?
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Anthony Scaramucci2:39
That was a sign of anger in Southern Italy. If my grandmother went like this with her hand, you were getting hit with something. We didn't know what it was, but something was coming.
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Giles Brandreth2:47
She did this before it happened.
A
Anthony Scaramucci2:48
Yeah, before it happened.
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Giles Brandreth2:49
And this was trying to control herself?
A
Anthony Scaramucci2:50
Yeah, or it was a signal to you. It was a signal to me.
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Giles Brandreth2:53
Look out, something's going to happen.
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Anthony Scaramucci2:55
Yeah.
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Giles Brandreth2:55
And it would be a wooden spoon.
A
Anthony Scaramucci2:57
Yeah, we got hit with the spoon.
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Giles Brandreth2:58
On the hand? On the head? On the...
A
Anthony Scaramucci3:00
Yeah, you get hit in the ass, on the side of the head. She'd pull my hair. They were tough, but they were great. She was a wonderful person. She had a lot of Catholic faith. I think I got from her something she didn't know the word for: pronoya. Have you heard of the word pronoya?
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Giles Brandreth3:22
No.
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Anthony Scaramucci3:22
It's the opposite of paranoia. The universe is turning towards you. The people around you are there to help you. She had this unstinting faith in that and this unconditional love affair with America. I think she turned me into a pronoyac, if you will.
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Giles Brandreth3:40
Where was the bus?
A
Anthony Scaramucci3:42
The bus was actually on Main Street in Port Washington.
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Giles Brandreth3:45
Where is Port Washington?
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Anthony Scaramucci3:46
Where I grew up. Port Washington is a hamlet on the North Shore of Long Island. It used to be called Cow Neck. General Washington, that traitor to you and an American patriot to me, quartered troops on the south side of the bay there. After the Revolutionary War, they renamed the town Port Washington after him. The streets I grew up on were very tiny houses, a middle-class area. The streets were named after the founding fathers: Jefferson Street, Adams Street. It was all Italian-Americans, all blue-collar people.
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Giles Brandreth4:30
And Italian-Americans, your grandmother, was she first-generation American?
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Anthony Scaramucci4:35
Yeah, definitely first generation. She was born in Italy and came over.
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Giles Brandreth4:39
So your mother, what was her name?
A
Anthony Scaramucci4:42
Maria, named after her mom. Her maiden name was DeFeo. She met my father in 1953.
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Giles Brandreth4:52
And do you know how they met? Literally how they met, the moment they met, your two parents?
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Anthony Scaramucci4:56
They met in a place called Freddy's Restaurant on Port Washington Boulevard. It's not there anymore. It was an old-school New York style diner with coffee stations, a soda fountain, and full circular swivel seats.
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Giles Brandreth5:13
And how old were each of them?
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Anthony Scaramucci5:14
She was 16. He was 18. She was dating somebody. He was soliciting her. He convinced her and two of her classmates, because he had a car, to go to Jones Beach. He got a flat tire on the way. He was out changing the tire, she was yelling at him, and he took his greasy hands and put the grease on her white t-shirt. I don't know why that attracted my mother to him, but they got married.
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Giles Brandreth6:05
How quickly did they get married?
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Anthony Scaramucci6:07
She met him in '53, got married on January 20th, 1957. They dated on and off for the first two years, then got more serious. They married at the local church, had the reception at a local restaurant.
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Giles Brandreth6:24
Were families enthusiastic about it?
A
Anthony Scaramucci6:27
No. My grandfather thought my dad was too poor to marry. My grandfather had made a little money as a car mechanic, owned a few houses. He thought my dad was too poor for my mother. She was dating the son of a judge, which my grandfather approved of. My father was a scrappy poor kid from northeastern Pennsylvania, a nobody in my grandfather's mind. So he didn't approve.
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Giles Brandreth7:02
But you say your dad was a bit of a hustler. And so he got usually what he wanted anyway.
A
Anthony Scaramucci7:07
He was a hard worker, persistent, charming, good-looking. He got what he wanted. But they had a rough marriage. I'm not going to mince words on the Rosebud podcast. They were married too young, personality mismatch, which happened a lot in Italian Catholic families.
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Giles Brandreth7:19
Why did they have a rough marriage? And was it rough from the beginning?
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Anthony Scaramucci36:34
I'm a real estate investment banker at Goldman Sachs. Look at the pinky, see? But here's the problem with that. That's what really happened to me. Because what ended up happening is I sucked at the job.
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Giles Brandreth36:47
Oh.
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Anthony Scaramucci36:47
And so now I'm in the job, working very hard, but I don't really understand it that well. The firm goes into a downturn because of the Iraq war. The partner running the area fired me on February 1st, 1991. He took me to his apartment, got me a beer, and said, 'You're fired. You actually suck at the job. You need a different job.' I asked him to be a reference. I went to the bank, got four rolls of quarters, and called people from pay phones looking for a job. I was 27, humiliated. A friend told me about an opening at Goldman in a different area. I called the guy who fired me, and he got me the interview. I got rehired, but they gave me an $11,000 severance check which I had already spent. The personnel person marked it as an interdepartmental transfer. I spent seven years at Goldman, then left to start my own company.
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Giles Brandreth39:58
And where we are now with the latest company, which is SkyBridge. We can't go through all the ups and downs of your career. That is worth what SkyBridge now? This is the ultimate company that you built, the business.
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Anthony Scaramucci40:09
I don't know. It's probably worth a couple hundred million dollars. It's a private company. When I was going into the White House, I had an offer to purchase the company at $250 million. I didn't do that because I got fired so quickly and didn't want to give up the company. So I went back to it.
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Giles Brandreth40:30
How do you end up at the White House? How does that happen?
A
Anthony Scaramucci40:32
I ended up in the White House because I'm a prolific political fundraiser. I've raised a ton of money for different politicians. I was working for Jeb Bush. I know Trump for multiple decades.
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Giles Brandreth40:43
Jeb Bush was in Florida. Was he?
A
Anthony Scaramucci40:44
Jeb Bush was the governor of Florida, son of George Herbert Walker Bush and brother of George Walker Bush. He was running for president in '16, a very successful governor, and raised a boatload of money.
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Giles Brandreth40:57
Helped by you.
A
Anthony Scaramucci40:58
And yeah, he got slayed by Trump. Trump called me and said, 'Hey, come work for me.'
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Giles Brandreth41:04
Again, it was Trump called you. This is a phone call.
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Anthony Scaramucci41:06
The phone call, yeah.
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Giles Brandreth41:07
From Trump. Who is? Had you met him over the years?
A
Anthony Scaramucci41:09
Yeah, so I had a relationship. I would never qualify myself as a friend of Donald Trump's. If you're qualifying yourself as a friend, you're exaggerating or lack self-awareness. He doesn't have friends. You're a transaction in his field of view. Transact with him at your peril. Everybody gets blown up. There's a carousel of people that join the Trump chorus, get backstabbed, and lit up. That's what happens.
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Giles Brandreth41:52
So, phone call comes through. You have breakfast. You have breakfast.
A
Anthony Scaramucci41:55
I got it. Good. So, I got to breakfast.
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Giles Brandreth41:57
And what do you have for breakfast?
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Anthony Scaramucci41:58
I just have coffee, actually. It's a late breakfast. I go to the 26th floor of Trump Tower. He's sitting at his desk, perched up high, and your chair is down low. You're looking up at him. He's telling me this was the day after The Apprentice finale.
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Giles Brandreth42:31
Which is his big TV show.
A
Anthony Scaramucci42:33
Big TV show. He asked if I saw him on The Apprentice. I said no. He said the ratings were fantastic. Then he said, 'But that's over now, I'm running for president.' I laughed and said, 'You're not running for president. Fox News had you at 2% in the polls.' He said, 'That's because people like you don't believe me. When I announce, I'll shoot to the top and win. You should come work for me.'
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Giles Brandreth43:13
Mhm.
A
Anthony Scaramucci43:13
I said, 'I still don't believe you. I think it's a publicity stunt. I'm with Jeb Bush and it would be disloyal to break.' To Trump's credit, he respected that. He said, 'If I knock Jeb out of the race, will you come work for me?' I made a stupid decision and said yes. He knocked Jeb out, his assistant called me, and I went to work for him.
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Giles Brandreth43:56
And you went to work for him as a fundraiser because that was your record.
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Anthony Scaramucci43:58
Yeah, I went to work for him as a fundraiser. I was also hosting a show for Fox Business called Wall Street Week and was a business commentator. So I provided media support and advocacy, raised money, reviewed speeches, and so forth.
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Giles Brandreth44:31
He calling the shots? Did he phone you? How did it work?
A
Anthony Scaramucci44:34
He called me. He always called me Anthony. I never called him Donald; I called him Mr. Trump, and later Mr. President.
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Giles Brandreth44:50
And I've been told by many people his personal manner is quite charming.
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Anthony Scaramucci44:53
No question.
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Giles Brandreth44:54
And he has good sense of humor?
A
Anthony Scaramucci44:56
He's got a good sense of humor. He can be charming in small spaces. I got on with him. I worked for him for 9 months, did 71 campaign stops, raised lots of money. Jared Kushner said Trump said I reminded him of Fred Trump because I built my own business. I was direct with him. He appreciated that during the campaign, but not in the White House.
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Giles Brandreth45:41
So, you become He appointed you as the communication secretary.
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Anthony Scaramucci45:44
The first move was he made me part of the executive transition committee. For 12 weeks, I interviewed cabinet and sub-cabinet officials, worked on building the cabinet and ambassadorships.
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Giles Brandreth46:01
And you were excited because you thought he's a president now. Did you think this is going to work?
A
Anthony Scaramucci46:07
I didn't think he was going to win. He didn't think he was going to win either. When he won, we were all shocked. We had to build the cabinet in a manic rush. That's when the hook went through my eyeball. I let my pride and ego get the best of me. My wife thought Trump was batshit crazy and told me not to do it. I didn't listen and paid the price.
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Giles Brandreth47:19
[sighs and gasps]
A
Anthony Scaramucci47:19
I paid the price.
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Giles Brandreth47:20
And how did you pay the price? Because you do eventually, once he actually becomes president, you were appointed. What was your role?
A
Anthony Scaramucci47:25
I was the OPL director, Office of Public Liaison. I was supposed to network for the president, build relationships with government officials and business leaders. But Reince Priebus, the chief of staff, didn't like me. He was passive-aggressive, stabbing me in the back. I called him out, which made it worse. I had the blue badge and access to the White House from January 20th until I got fired. Trump told me not to give up the badge, he'd find me a job. On July 20th, he called me in for lunch.
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Giles Brandreth49:09
What did you eat?
A
Anthony Scaramucci49:10
I had a club sandwich. Trump didn't eat anything, just drank 14 Diet Cokes. He said, 'I want you to come work for me. You're right about Priebus and Bannon. I got to get rid of them.' I said okay. He asked what offices were available, and the communications director office was open. He said, 'You're my communications director.' I said I had no experience. He said, 'Relax, you'll figure it out.' That was the height of my stupidity. The next day, the White House ops guy told Priebus and Bannon. They called me non-stop. The next morning, we met in the chief of staff's office. They ripped into me, but I said Trump wants me. That was pride and ego.
G
Giles Brandreth51:21
But Trump might have been right. You might have done the job well. Why did it How was your first day like?
A
Anthony Scaramucci51:26
I was never going to be able to do the job well because the knives were already out. Trump did something on the first day that made it impossible. He told Priebus, 'I don't want your filth and your stink on him,' and said I report directly to him. That was bad because when the new chief of staff came in, he wouldn't like it. John Kelly fired me as one of his first acts. But John and I are good friends now. It's important not to take it personally.
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Giles Brandreth52:34
So, you felt you weren't able to do the job, but you were hooked in. They didn't want you in there, certainly not having direct contact with the president. Why did he let you go since he decided you were going to be
A
Anthony Scaramucci52:43
Trump let me go because I was fighting with him.
G
Giles Brandreth52:47
Oh.
A
Anthony Scaramucci52:47
Trump had decided to do things his way, some of which may cross constitutional lines. He pushed me to do things I wasn't capable of, like lying about the inaugural crowd size. I refused because I have a reputation on Wall Street. I pissed him off. Kelly was honest that it wouldn't work. So I got fired. Then I got lit up by late-night comedians and cable news. It was brutal.
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Giles Brandreth54:13
Did you feel
A
Anthony Scaramucci54:14
9 years later, we're still talking about it. It was brutal.
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Giles Brandreth54:17
But did you feel humiliated by it?
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Anthony Scaramucci54:19
Oh, very much so. Among many other feelings: humiliation, shame, self-consciousness, awkwardness, pissed-offness at myself for falling into an ego trap. I also had a problem with my wife and missed the birth of my son James.
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Giles Brandreth54:50
Tell us about your wife. This is your first wife?
A
Anthony Scaramucci54:52
Second wife.
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Giles Brandreth54:53
Your second
A
Anthony Scaramucci54:54
Yeah, so I was
G
Giles Brandreth54:55
to your first wife? Let's deal with her briefly.
A
Anthony Scaramucci54:57
We got married at age 24 in 1988. She's a lovely person, a great mom. I have three beautiful kids with her. We just weren't matched 100%.
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Giles Brandreth55:15
Was she Catholic? Was she
A
Anthony Scaramucci55:17
Like Catholics, we stayed married. We were married for 22 years. There was difficulty, but we're both happier now.
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Giles Brandreth55:37
And you had three children together.
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Anthony Scaramucci55:38
Three children. She got a handsome divorce settlement with a 10-year payout. I took care of all the kids' expenses.
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Giles Brandreth55:54
If you have
A
Anthony Scaramucci55:54
If I made a mistake in my first marriage, it was conflict avoidance. Growing up in a violent household, I either replicate violence or avoid conflict. Conflict avoidance is also bad behavior. I didn't have the self-awareness or communication skills to express what I needed.
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Giles Brandreth56:40
And you were working all the time.
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Anthony Scaramucci56:42
Was working all the time, yeah.
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Giles Brandreth56:43
If you'd gone to confession, maybe you did go to confession during this period, what would the first thing have been that you would want to confess in relation to that first marriage?
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Anthony Scaramucci56:51
I didn't handle the marriage well. I could take 70% of the blame. My conflict avoidance contributed to the failure. I didn't have the self-awareness to say, 'This isn't working, these are my needs.'
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Giles Brandreth57:33
And how quickly did you find your second wife? Or did you find her during your first marriage?
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Anthony Scaramucci57:37
It was towards the end of my first marriage. I found her through work. She was the investor relations person at a company I merged with.
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Giles Brandreth57:51
And is she Catholic and
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Anthony Scaramucci57:53
She's Lutheran. German, Norwegian, and Italian. Similar religious theology.
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Giles Brandreth58:03
And you had two children with her?
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Anthony Scaramucci58:04
Two children. I have a total of five.
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Giles Brandreth58:06
And so this is the second wife.
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Anthony Scaramucci58:08
Second wife filed for divorce on me.
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Giles Brandreth58:10
Gosh, for what reason and when?
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Anthony Scaramucci58:12
Some misbehavior on my part. She didn't want me to work for Trump. She thought I lost my way. But we repaired the marriage. When I got fired from the White House, my wife had filed for divorce, I was excoriated by the press, and I missed the birth of my son. It was a disaster. But I did everything to repair the marriage, fix my business, and work on my public image.
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Giles Brandreth59:27
How did you fix the marriage? Did you change your behavior?
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Anthony Scaramucci59:31
I think marriages shouldn't be disposable. I loved her and sensed she still loved me. Tony Robbins introduced me to a life coach. I worked with Deirdre on the marriage. You have to be honest with yourself about your flaws. I owned my misbehavior and callousness. Getting my ass kicked at the White House forced humility and made me more psychologically minded.
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Giles Brandreth1:01:12
Did you think through during this therapy and coming together why what had caused you the misbehavior? I can see the workaholic nature. I don't know if you were chasing or flirting with other women. If you were, did you work out why you were doing that? What the need was in you to be working all the time? To have this next success. To be with a girl who says, 'Anthony, you're the best.' Did you think that through as well as I've got to change my behavior? Did you work out what was going
A
Anthony Scaramucci1:01:46
This is the seminal question. What causes that is external affirmation. We all want it, but it's not what makes you happy. Internal affirmation is what matters. Am I waking up and what am I doing today? What do I represent? For me, it's honesty, humbleness, and above all, kindness. Kindness is a superpower, a karmic piece of happiness. External affirmation is way less valuable than internal affirmation and staying close to family. I'm still a workaholic, but I have more self-honesty and self-comfort.
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Giles Brandreth1:04:07
And your cat?
A
Anthony Scaramucci1:04:07
And I think I have a lot of self-comfort with it.
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Giles Brandreth1:04:09
How are you contacting your wife you found out while you're in London? You
A
Anthony Scaramucci1:04:12
Oh, very much so. I'm on the phone.
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Giles Brandreth1:04:15
It's going okay?
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Anthony Scaramucci1:04:16
Knock on wood, I think we're the best we've been.
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Giles Brandreth1:04:22
Good.
A
Anthony Scaramucci1:04:23
And you got to work on it.
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Giles Brandreth1:04:26
You are a Capricorn. What is she?
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Anthony Scaramucci1:04:29
Well-suited for me. She's a Taurus.
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Giles Brandreth1:04:31
Oh.
A
Anthony Scaramucci1:04:31
But she's also got her rising sign in Leo.
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Giles Brandreth1:04:35
Mhm.
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Anthony Scaramucci1:04:36
And I'm an Aries rising sign. People see me as fiery, but I'm actually more of a bookworm and nerdy.
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Giles Brandreth1:04:51
As we're discovering. I mean, you're interested in astrology. I mean, I mentioned being a Capricorn because that counts with you. I mean, you're intrigued by it.
A
Anthony Scaramucci1:04:58
What is your birthday?
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Giles Brandreth1:04:59
Uh, can you guess?
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Anthony Scaramucci1:05:00
Mhm, you feel Virgoish to me, but I'm not
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Giles Brandreth1:05:02
Well, actually, how do I give that impression?
A
Anthony Scaramucci1:05:05
Your birthday?
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Giles Brandreth1:05:05
I'm Pisces.
A
Anthony Scaramucci1:05:06
Pisces. Oh, wow. Okay.
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Giles Brandreth1:05:07
I'm Pisces and my wife
A
Anthony Scaramucci1:05:08
Son of a bitch then. You drive her crazy then.
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Giles Brandreth1:05:10
She's Pisces, too.
A
Anthony Scaramucci1:05:11
Oh, she is. Okay.
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Giles Brandreth1:05:12
We drive each other crazy.
A
Anthony Scaramucci1:05:14
Fights got to be really rough. But you're very passionate.
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Giles Brandreth1:05:16
Don't introduce me to a Scorpio.
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Anthony Scaramucci1:05:18
You don't do well
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Giles Brandreth1:05:19
No, I get on terribly well.
A
Anthony Scaramucci1:05:21
Oh, you do.
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Giles Brandreth1:05:21
I abandon the boundaries.
A
Anthony Scaramucci1:05:23
Okay.
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Giles Brandreth1:05:23
Oh, yeah. An affirmation from a Scorpio and I'm
A
Anthony Scaramucci1:05:26
Well, just remember they say millionaires don't believe in astrology, but billionaires do. J.P. Morgan had astrological readings in his library.
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Giles Brandreth1:05:37
Somebody predicted you died. You had an obituary published during your lifetime.
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Anthony Scaramucci1:05:41
I did, yeah.
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Giles Brandreth1:05:42
Was the obituary a generous one?
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Anthony Scaramucci1:05:44
No, it was more of a one sentence. The Harvard law school directory changed my profile to say I died on July 27th. I'm still here. Mark Twain said, 'The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.'
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Giles Brandreth1:06:11
Do you have an epitaph in mind? I think you do now. Actually. I think you would like it to be said that he was actually quite kind.
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Anthony Scaramucci1:06:18
That's it.
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Giles Brandreth1:06:19
He was a kind guy.
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Anthony Scaramucci1:06:19
I just say kindness is the virtue.
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Giles Brandreth1:06:22
Kindness is the virtue.
A
Anthony Scaramucci1:06:23
Kindness is the virtue, yeah.
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Giles Brandreth1:06:24
Oh. Last three questions.
A
Anthony Scaramucci1:06:26
Yeah, go ahead.
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Giles Brandreth1:06:27
A moment of joy. Just comes into your head. Maybe from your early years, anytime. A moment of joy.
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Anthony Scaramucci1:06:34
My niece's graduation from nursing school. My sister didn't have money. I paid her tuition, room and board, books. Having the means to take care of my children and also help my niece so she didn't have the school debt I had — that's a powerful, joyous feeling.
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Giles Brandreth1:07:07
And a moment of sadness.
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Anthony Scaramucci1:07:10
The original great sadness was the death of my grandmother. I was nine years old. Italians are brutal with death — open casket, four-day wake. I stared at her for days. That was the apex sadness, more than my dad's death because I had experience with death by then.
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Giles Brandreth1:08:03
And it is a good way to end because we began with her.
A
Anthony Scaramucci1:08:06
Yeah, she was the best.
G
Giles Brandreth1:08:09
She was a Virgo by the way, very perfectionistic and very hard on herself.
A
Anthony Scaramucci1:08:13
Yeah.
G
Giles Brandreth1:08:14
Okay, last question.
A
Anthony Scaramucci1:08:15
Go ahead.
G
Giles Brandreth1:08:16
What is your life lesson? What have you learned in your 62 years?
A
Anthony Scaramucci1:08:21
Mhm.
G
Giles Brandreth1:08:21
[clears throat]
A
Anthony Scaramucci1:08:22
Such a great question. The big lesson is from Mel Brooks: 'Relax. None of us are getting out of here alive.' Don't take it too seriously. Be comfortable in your own skin. Accept what you can't change. If you were born in a lucky country, you're one of the luckiest people on the planet.
G
Giles Brandreth1:09:29
We're putting this out around the 4th of July, 250 years after the founding of the United States of America.
A
Anthony Scaramucci1:09:35
Yeah.
G
Giles Brandreth1:09:36
Are you a proud American? And are you optimistic about the next 250 years for your country?
A
Anthony Scaramucci1:09:44
I'm not going to say it with false optimism. There are things I'm worried about, but generally I'm very optimistic. America is a young country, an experiment based on an idea. It's teeming with immigrants. We dunk ourselves every 80 years but pick ourselves up. I'm writing a book about good intentions gone bad. I believe we can reform. The next 250 years will show a resilient country that brings in intellectual capital from around the world.
G
Giles Brandreth1:12:05
I'm pleased to hear that. And I'm very pleased to spend this time with you, Anthony.
A
Anthony Scaramucci1:12:09
It's been great. You're a great interviewer. You're very good at conversation.
G
Giles Brandreth1:12:15
Thank you for joining us on Rosebud.
A
Anthony Scaramucci1:12:16
It's a real pleasure to be here. Thank you.
G
Giles Brandreth1:12:19
Well, I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did. If you did, please like and subscribe because that helps us spread the word and more people can watch Rosebud, my favorite podcast. I hope it's yours, too. Bye for now.