The hedge-fund millionaire who lasted 10 days as Trump’s communications chief is back with – ta-dah! – the Scaramucci Post. Just don’t ask him to explain it

Anthony Scaramucci, the New York hedge-fund millionaire who lasted 10 days as Donald Trump’s White House communications director, spent almost all of Monday unveiling his latest venture: a media company called the Scaramucci Post.

The Mooch makes the move into his natural habitat – late-night television Read more

The only problem was that by 9pm, after a launch party in a fancy New York City restaurant and day spent broadcasting on a Periscope live feed, it was not entirely clear what Scaramucci was launching.

The Scaramucci Post is for millennials, he told reporters at the Hunt and Fish Club, the restaurant he part-owns. It will occupy the “centre lane” in a media world he describes as a “two-way highway”, offering “everything in moderation, including moderation”. The Scaramucci Post will seek to highlight the positives in politics and serve the public interest but it will also definitely make money.

“I’m an entrepreneur,” said Scaramucci, who had been due to hold a full-scale launch party and had asked journalists seeking invitations to tweet at the Scaramucci Post Twitter feed, using the hashtag “#MoochIWantToParty”.

After the mass shooting in Las Vegas, though, the party was scaled back. Hors d’oeuvres were served as Scaramucci took questions from reporters, live-streamed on Periscope. That seemed appropriate, given the Periscope account is currently the only tangible aspect of the endeavour.

There is no Scaramucci Post website. The first day’s output consisted of Scaramucci, wearing a T-shirt and with his arm in a sling because of a shoulder injury, sitting at a table, using the live-streaming app to talk to camera.

There were one or two hiccups as the person behind the camera – a man named Lance, Scaramucci’s friend and business partner – struggled to get to grips with Periscope. “I think it’s still broadcasting,” Lance said, as Scaramucci stared into the camera. It was.

“We’re going to show people in the media what real entrepreneurship is like,” Scaramucci said. “So real entrepreneurship is a couple of people with an iPhone building something that people are going to scoff at until it’s completely built.”

This seemed fair enough – it is easy to scoff. Except Scaramucci had promised his outlet would present “a world-class experience”, which didn’t quite match what was on offer. Later in the broadcast, he said: “I can’t tell you what the Scaramucci Post is going to be.” That added to the sense of chaos.

At least some of the comments on the Periscope feed were positive. “Love you, Mooch,” one person wrote. Another comment read: “Don’t stop the work.” A man wrote: “Why did Trump fire this cutie? I will hire you for an hour.”

Scaramucci, who likes to be known as “the Mooch”, has spent the summer convalescing since he was ousted from the White House. “I’m unemployed,” he told the Guardian on Monday – although given Fortune estimates his net worth at around $50m, it was hard to feel too much sympathy.

The former hedge fund manager, who insists he was actually employed for 11 days – “Stop short-changing me that one day. That’s 9.1% of my federal employment insurance” – was fired after referring to colleague Reince Preibus as a “a fucking paranoid schizophrenic” and insisting that, in contrast to then White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, he himself was not “trying to suck my own cock”.

Whatever Scaramucci is attempting to do now remains unclear. Just as the Scaramucci Post’s mission seems confused – “centre lane”, “moderation” and money-making – Scaramucci and co don’t seem to have put much thought into the actual way they will publish.

On Monday night, Scaramucci told the Guardian the Scaramucci Post may not broadcast every day. It will roll out in a gradual way, he said. It is a news outlet that will start out as a video format, but currently has no journalists on staff.

All in all, the Scaramucci Post launch was almost as baffling as Scaramucci’s tenure in the White House. And there might be a reason for that.

“I’m not a media person,” Scaramucci said. “And I’m definitely not a communications director.”