Scaramucci tirade reveals White House infighting

President Donald Trump's new communications director has laid bare internal feuding in the White House, unleashing a tirade of foul language at top officials in the West Wing in an interview published on Thursday.

Anthony Scaramucci called White House chief of staff Reince Priebus a "f*****g paranoid schizophrenic" and accused him of being behind leaks that threatened to undermine the Trump presidency.

The comments were published in the New Yorker after the new communications director on Wednesday night called a journalist who reported that Scaramucci was having dinner with Trump, the first lady, former Fox News executive Bill Shine and Sean Hannity.

Unlike Steve Bannon, Scaramucci said he was not trying "to suck my own c**k," accusing the White House chief strategist of trying to use Trump to boost his own image. "I'm not trying to build my own brand off the f****g strength of the president. I'm here to serve the country," the communications director said.

Scaramucci demanded that New Yorker journalist Ryan Lizza tell him the name of person who leaked information about the dinner, saying that he would fire the entire White House communications staff to root out leaks. 

He then accused Priebus of being behind the leaks and suggested the chief of staff would be leaving the White House soon.

President Trump has been trying to stop leaks within his administration.

The New Yorker's Lizza said Scaramucci failed to say that the telephone conversation was off the record.

Scaramucci on Wednesday wrote in a tweet that has since been deleted that he would get the FBI and Justice Department to investigate the leaks. In the tweet, Scaramucci seemed to imply that Priebus was behind a report in Politico about his finances.

It later emerged that his financial record forms were accessed by a Politico reporter through a public records request.

Scaramucci later tweeted that he added Priebus to the deleted tweet to say that he was helping end leaks within the White House.

Scaramucci, a millionaire New York financier, arrived at the White House only last week when Sean Spicer resigned as communications director.

There is reportedly bad blood between Scaramucci and Priebus after the chief of staff blocked Scaramucci from taking up a position in the new administration earlier this year.

Scaramucci later tweeted he regretted using "colorful language."

He also added that he made a mistake trusting a reporter.

cw/bk (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)