Manhasset resident Anthony Scaramucci is finally joining President Donald Trump’s administration.
Scaramucci, 53, a Port Washington native, is Trump’s choice to become ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, a White House official told Reuters on Thursday.
He was originally slated to become the White House’s public liaison to the business community, but he sold his investment firm, SkyBridge Capital, to a Chinese conglomerate with strong ties to China’s ruling Communist Party. Administration officials said Scaramucci’s appointment would have taken three months to be cleared of ethics conflicts.
Efforts to reach Scaramucci were unavailing.
Scaramucci said on Bloomberg Television he was offered the original business job on Jan. 12 by Reince Priebus, the president’s chief of staff, but it did not “materialize.”
He said the offer was “politically taken way” from him, not ethically taken away, and he sold his business to serve the president.
The sale reportedly netted him $180 million.
The Senate is required to confirm Scaramucci for the job.
Despite once calling Trump an “inherited money dude from Queens County” and clashing on other issues with the president-elect, Scaramucci has constantly defended Trump on television and Twitter.
Scaramucci, often referred to as “the Mooch,” initially supported Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin and then former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush before supporting Trump.
Scaramucci donated more than $210,000 to “super PACs,’’ political committees and joint fundraising committees supporting Trump in the last two years, according to Federal Election Commission records.
He donated over $177,000 to the Republican National Committee in the same period, according to the FEC.
Scaramucci, a registered Republican, donated money to Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, as well as Rand Paul’s and Jeb Bush’s 2016 bids for president, according to FEC records.
He also donated money to Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.
Scaramucci has written three books, including his most recent, “Hopping Over the Rabbit Hole,” which focuses on his experiences in business.
A regular contributor to the Fox Business Network, Scaramucci once hosted “Wall Street Week,” an investment and stock market news show that aired on Fridays.
After receiving a bachelor’s degree in economics from Tufts University and a J.D. from Harvard, Scaramucci worked at Goldman Sachs from 1989 to 1996, before launching Oscar Capital Management, which was sold to Lehman Brothers.
He founded SkyBridge Capital in 2005.
He served as a national finance co-chairman for Mitt Romney for President in 2012.
