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Divorce Report Capped Scaramucci’s First Week. There Was No Second Week.

The White House communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on Friday.Credit...Tom Brenner/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Anthony Scaramucci, the White House communications director whose flair for gale-force showmanship makes his new boss look almost tame, had an explosive first week on the job — so explosive that the president removed him from the role on Monday. The news of his ouster, at the hands of John F. Kelly, a new chief of staff tasked with instilling order in the West Wing, followed a particularly chaotic weekend in Mr. Scaramucci’s personal life.

On Friday, The New York Post’s Page Six column reported that Mr. Scaramucci’s wife, Deidre Ball, had filed for divorce while pregnant with the couple’s second child, a boy born last week. In an interview on Sunday, Jill Stone, who is representing Ms. Ball, confirmed the divorce filing, but said it was not caused by Mr. Scaramucci’s decision to work for Mr. Trump.

“It has nothing to do with Trump,” Ms. Stone said.

Mr. Scaramucci’s devotion to Mr. Trump is well documented, and he is thought to be the catalyst for two high-profile departures since his arrival: Sean Spicer, the former press secretary, is resigned over Mr. Scaramucci’s hire, and Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff, was ousted days after Mr. Scaramucci called him a “paranoid schizophrenic” during an expletive-laden tirade delivered to a reporter at The New Yorker.

Ms. Stone, who may have been invoking a bit of wishful thinking when it comes to this White House, added, “Honestly, it’s a private matter, and she’s hoping that it just dies down.”

Ms. Stone would not characterize the nature of the separation. She said that Ms. Ball, who is in her late 30s, gave birth last Monday to the couple’s second child. The newborn was with her and was “doing very well,” Ms. Stone said. She added that reports of a casual text message sent from Mr. Scaramucci — “Congratulations, I’ll pray for our child” — to Ms. Ball after she gave birth were false.

The week of his son’s birth in New York coincided with his first week in the White House, and Mr. Scaramucci remained in Washington with the president. On the day his son was born, Mr. Scaramucci, 53, traveled aboard Air Force One with Mr. Trump, and then watched as the president delivered a politically charged speech to thousands of Boy Scouts in West Virginia. He has posted photographs and tweets, with thumbs-ups and hugs, from aboard Air Force One or while attending a Trump rally in Ohio. At the White House, Mr. Scaramucci dined on Wednesday with Sean Hannity and Kimberly Guilfoyle of Fox News and Bill Shine, a former Fox executive. (He called The New Yorker later that night.)

The couple, who married in 2014, worked together at SkyBridge Capital, the hedge fund business founded by Mr. Scaramucci. It was the second marriage for both. In anticipation of obtaining a White House job, Mr. Scaramucci sold his stake of the business earlier this year to a group led by a Chinese conglomerate.

Ms. Ball approached her lawyer about a divorce in late June.

Calls and emails to Mr. Scaramucci and Ms. Ball went unanswered on Sunday, but Mr. Scaramucci addressed the situation on Twitter over the weekend.

“Leave civilians out of this,” he wrote on Friday night. “I can take the hits, but I would ask that you would put my family in your thoughts and prayers & nothing more.”

As the intrigue surrounding his personal life intensified, Mr. Scaramucci lashed out at journalists the next morning.

“Family does not need to be drawn into this,” Mr. Scaramucci posted. “Soon we will learn who in the media has class and who doesn’t. No further comments on this.”

He was not done talking about his new role. By Sunday, Mr. Scaramucci had shared a tweet from Mr. Trump that disparaged the Affordable Care Act, and then boasted of a successful call with Ronna Romney McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee.

“@GOP doing fantastic work to support @POTUS #MAGA,” Mr. Scaramucci wrote, “looking forward to building even stronger relationship.”

Hours later, one of Mr. Trump’s most dedicated surrogates would learn that his own relationship with the president would turn out to look more like a fling.

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