Anthony Scaramucci, who was named Donald Trump’s new White House communications director and resigned a few days later, is the son of an Italian sand miner who speaks proudly of his middle class upbringing on Long Island.
The brash self-made millionaire’s hiring sparked the resignation of Sean Spicer, one of the most visible faces in the Trump administration. On July 31, it was announced that Scaramucci had already resigned as communications director, perhaps at the behest of new Chief of Staff John Kelly.
Scaramucci, 53, is a New York financier who is also an author and cable news firebrand. His choice was opposed by other top figures in the Trump administration, including Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and strategist Steve Bannon, according to The New York Times. Priebus has now left the Trump administration after a scathing interview in which Scaramucci called him names.
On July 28, Page Six reported that Scaramucci’s second wife, Deidre, filed for divorce in early July while eight months pregnant. She has since given birth to Scaramucci’s son, James.
All of this has a lot of people wondering about Scaramucci’s background and his family. Scaramucci, a twice married father of three, is from a mining family on Long Island. His pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps life story, New York roots, and entrepreneurship likely appealed to Donald Trump.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Scaramucci’s Father Spent Years Toiling in Sand Mines & Scaramucci Is Proud of His Italian Heritage
GettyAnthony Scaramucci.
Scaramucci’s father, in particular, often features in the candid stories that Scaramucci likes to tell about his hard-scrabble “American Dream” childhood, in which he was taught work ethic and self sufficiency and used those traits to eventually achieve great wealth.
Scaramucci spoke proudly of his parents, their work ethic and long-lived marriage, in a Q and A with LIBN.com. He revealed that he considered himself middle class growing up on Long Island, New York.
“My dad worked in the sand mines there for 42 years. Gotham Sand and Stone. It’s now a golf course,” Scaramucci told the Long Island publication. “…I participated in that sand miner’s monument as you head into Roslyn dedicated to the Italian, Welsh, Polish and Irish immigrants who came to Long Island to dig out the sand bank.”
He added that he was proud of his parents and told the news site in 2016, “They’re married 58 years and live in the same house I grew up in. They didn’t go to college. They’re pretty happy. They helped me get to where I am.”
On Facebook, Scaramucci also brought up the sand mine story, writing, “My dad labored in the sand mines of Long Island for 42 years. He taught me what it meant to put in an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. Now he has trouble hearing due to the effects of heavy machinery, but he’d tell you it was worth it. My father’s sacrifices allowed his children to be upwardly mobile.”
The family is of Italian heritage, something Scaramucci is very proud of.
Scaramucci told Fonderia USA, “I am Italian. I love my heritage, my upbringing and the culture that I came from. I make no apologies for being me.” He added, “I am in love with Italy. I am proud of my Italian descent and believe that in the long-term the Italian people are very resilient.”
2. Scaramucci Lives Two Miles From the House He Grew Up in & Worked in His Uncle’s Motorcycle Shop
GettyAnthony Scaramucci will be President Donald Trump’s new White House Communications Director.
In 2016, Scaramucci revealed in a profile story with LIBN.com that he lives close to the house where he was raised and still considers childhood friends a key touchstone.
“If I ever wake up and think of myself as a TV star, I want my friends in my hometown to hit me on the head with something. I grew up in Port Washington and live in Manhasset about two miles from the home I grew up in,” he said to the site.
Growing up, Scaramucci said, his “uncle had a motorcycle shop at the top of the hill where I lived. I went there to work sometimes and I sold helmets, chains and mopeds.”
Scaramucci eventually graduated from Harvard Law School and went to work for Goldman Sachs. He started a hedge fund, reported People Magazine, before selling it and starting SkyBridge, “a global investment firm specializing in hedge fund products.” He was on Trump’s campaign finance committee.
Scaramucci now has a net worth in the many millions of dollars.
3. Scaramucci Has Spoken Candidly About His Brother’s Struggle With Alcohol & Drug Addiction
GettyAnthony Scaramucci at Trump Tower in November 2016.
Writing on Medium.com in 2016, Scaramucci revealed that he brother, David Scaramucci, had “battled drug and alcohol addiction since college.”
His brother joined Anthony Scaramucci in a podcast to discuss his recovery. In that intensely personal podcast, Scaramucci revealed that his parents had a stressful marriage despite the union’s longevity.
“Growing up as the oldest son in a close-knit Italian family, David was the one most impacted by our parents’ up-and-down marriage,” wrote Anthony Scaramucci. “When he was 7 or 8 years old, he escaped through schoolwork and sports instead of alcohol and drugs, but the desire to escape from reality played a role in the behaviors he developed later in life.”
Scaramucci praised his brother for his desire to share his story to help others. “Our parents loved us to death, but I think they had a stressful marriage and the kids felt that stress,” David told Anthony. The podcast is no longer available.
4. Scaramucci Has Called His Family Background a ‘Classic Italian Immigrant Story’
Anthony Scaramucci, (L) senior advisor on the Trump transition team arrives during meetings at Trump Tower on January 4, 2017 in New York.
Scaramucci was born in Port Washington, Long Island, which he called “sort of a transplanted city from Volturara Irpina, a small Italian town of maybe 4,000 people.”
“It is a classic Italian immigrant story: in 1910 and 1920 groups of people from Volturara emigrated to the United States,” he told Fonderia USA. “They passed through Brooklyn, ended up in Port Washington and had such a good experience they called their town folks back in Italy to join them.”
Scaramucci said he was the first person in his family to go to a professional school, telling Fonderia, “Both of my parents were born here. My father worked with his hands and he never went to college. My mother was a homemaker. My father worked for the same construction company for 42 years, and he was very strict with us when we were kids. The result is that my older brother is an electrical engineer. I went to Tufts University to study economics and then to Harvard Law School. I am the first person in my family to enter a professional school like a law school or an Ivy League college, and my parents helped me any way they could.”
5. Scaramucci’s Second Wife Deidre Scaramucci, Formerly Deidre Ball, Left Him While Nine Months Pregnant
Facebook/Deidre ScaramucciDeidre Ball pictured on her Facebook page.
Scaramucci is married to Deidre Scaramucci, the former Deidre Ball. She works in investor relations for Skybridge and is the mother of his two youngest sons.
Page Six reports that Scaramucci and Deidre have only been married since 2014 and dated since 2011, the year his divorce to his first wife, Lisa Miranda, was finalized. The site reports that Deidre, Scaramucci’s second wife, has filed for divorce because of Anthony Scaramucci’s “naked political ambition.” However, The New York Daily News reports that Deidre’s lawyer denies that Anthony’s political ambitions played any role in her decision to divorce him. Scaramucci tweeted a request that people leave his family alone, save for prayers.
Leave civilians out of this. I can take the hits, but I would ask that you would put my family in your thoughts and prayers & nothing more.
Deidre gave birth to the couple’s son on July 24, and Scaramucci was at a Boy Scout speech with Trump when the child was born, according to Page Six. Anthony Scaramucci was photographed pulling into the couple’s driveway in Long Island on July 29.
Scaramucci has sons named and a daughter. Scaramucci’s first wife Lisa Miranda is the mother of those children. According to Page Six, she was married to Scaramucci for 23 years and met him at church while in college; judging from her social media posts, she also is not a fan of Trump.
Anthony Jr. plays lacrosse at Manhasset High School.
Scaramucci’s son, AJ, is a Los Angeles-based entrepreneur in residence who once worked for Google.
InstagramAnthony Jr., Amelia, and AJ Scaramucci.
Scaramucci has also spoken candidly about his father and father-in-law’s health issues, telling Reuters, “Unfortunately, my dad had a brain tumor and my father-in-law passed away from leukemia, so I spend a lot of time on those two causes.”
Scaramucci’s second wife is very private. She has deleted her Twitter account. You can read more about Deidre Scaramucci here:
