White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci has launched an extraordinary rant towards chief of staff Reince Priebus, calling him a “f***** paranoid schizophrenic” and claiming he may be asked to resign “very shortly”.

Mr Scaramucci, who recently took over the communications job in a dramatic White House shakeup, called the New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza to vent about persistent leaks from federal employees to the press.

After unsuccessfully demanding the source for one of Mr Lizza’s tweets, Mr Scaramucci switched to a different tactic.

Trump spokesman compares attempt to repeal Obamacare to abolition of slavery

“They’ll all be fired by me,” he said, referring to the White House communications staff. “I fired one guy the other day. I have three to four people I’ll fire tomorrow.”

Later, Mr Scaramucci insisted Mr Priebus had leaked a story to Mr Lizza as revenge for not being invited to dinner with the President.

“Reince is a f****** paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac,” Mr Scaramucci said. He channelled Mr Priebus as he spoke - referencing the fact that the White House Chief of Staff was against Mr Scaramucci being appointed at the beginning of the Trump administration: “‘Oh, Bill Shine is coming in Let me leak the f*****g thing and see if I can c***-block these people the way I c***-blocked Scaramucci for six months.’”

Mr Scaramucci has waged a war against White House leaks since assuming his post. He has repeated his threat to fire all of the communications staff to multiple outlets, and has already followed through with one staffer – former assistant press secretary Michael Short.

After telling Politico of his plans to fire Mr Short in advance, Mr Scaramucci then condemned the press for reporting on it.

“This is actually a terrible thing,” he told reporters outside the White House. “Let’s say I’m firing Michael Short today. The fact that you guys know about it before he does really upsets me as a human being and as a Roman Catholic.”

The Communications Director was particularly incensed by the leak of his financial disclosure, which he deemed a “felony”, although such documents are made publicly available online once they are vetted by the Office of Government Ethics.

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In a since-deleted tweet, Mr Scaramucci appeared to blame the leak of his financial disclosure on Mr Priebus, writing: “In light of the leak of my financial disclosure info which is a felony. I will be contacting @FBI and @The Justice DEpartment #swamp @Reince45.”

Mr Scaramucci appeared on CNN to clear up the tweet, calling himself and Mr Priebus “brothers”.

“Some brothers are like Cain and Abel. Other brothers can fight with each other and get along,” he said, referencing the Biblical story in which Cain kills his brother Abel.

In his interview with Mr Lizza, however, Mr Scaramucci did not reserve his comments for Mr Priebus alone.

“I’m not Steve Bannon, I’m not trying to suck my own c***,” he said of Mr Trump’s chief strategist who is said to wield significant influence in the White House. “I’m not trying to build my own brand off the f****** strength of the President. I’m here to serve the country.