New White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci is claiming to clean house - and began by whacking a close confidant of departing press secretary Sean Spicer.

Michael Short, an assistant press secretary charged with feeding information to reporters and pushing back against their editors amid a steady stream of aggressive news stories, lacked a chair when Scaramucci's first record stopped playing.

Politico named Short as the first casualty in a widely expected round of bloodletting and.

Asked how he planned to stop a tsunami of leaks that have plagued the new administration in its first six months, Scaramucci told reporters Tuesday at the White House: 'I'm going to fire everybody! That’s how I’m going to do it!'

'You're either going to stop leaking or you're going to get fired.'

It was Scaramucci himself, however, who had told Politico he was letting Short go.

White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci spoke to members of the media at the White House on Tuesday, telling them he's willing to fire the entire communications staff

Michael Short, an assistant press secretary, is expected to see his head roll in the first of many communications department firings at the White House

President Donald Trump has empowered Scaramucci – 'The Mooch' – to root out leakers and remake the White House communications and press shop along different lines

Wearing shiny blue fashion sunglasses in the morning hours on the White House's north driveway, Scaramucci pointed to the guard shack that separates 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue from tourists.

'If they don't stop leaking, I'm going to put them out on Pennsylvania Avenue – it's a very clear thing,' he said. '

'You want to sell postcards to the tourists outside the gate? Or [do] you want to work in the West Wing? What do you want to do? If you want to work in the West Wing, you've got to stop leaking.'

Scaramucci told Politico, an inside-the beltway newspaper, that more heads could soon roll, even if it means there's no one left standing other than Spicer's replacement – Sarah Huckabee Sanders – and himself.

'I'm committed to taking the comms shop down to Sarah and me, if I can't get the leaks to stop,' he said.

Still, Scaramucci told the smallish gaggle of journalists outside the White House that he was upset to see Short's name discussed publicly before he had a chance to let him know his job was at risk.

Scaramucci is a New York financier cut from the same cloth as the president, and one White House aide says 'he's not just taking meetings – he's making lists'

'This is actually a terrible thing,' he said. '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. You got that?'

'So I should have the opportunity if I have to let somebody go to let the person go in a very humane, dignified way, and then the next thing is help the person get a job somewhere, ok? Because he probably has a family, right?'

'So now you guys are talking about it,' Scaramucci continued. 'He's – you know, it's not fair. I'm just being honest with you.'

'Here's the problem with the leaking, why I have to figure out a way to get the leaking to stop because it hurts people.'

An administration official told DailyMail.com on Tuesday that Scaramucci 'seems laser-focused' on a leak clampdown.

'He's not just taking meetings,' the aide said. 'He's making lists.'

White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus (left) and outgoing White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer (right) were the Republican National Committee's major staff additions to the new Trump administration, but the party's influence appears to be on the wane

Short told CNN that 'no one has told me anything,' after news of his firing swept through Washington, 'and the entire premise is false.'

But he later confirmed that he had resigned his job.

Scaramucci has vowed to clamp down on leaks coming from within the West Wing, although many reporters looking for secret sources shop for dirt elsewhere in the administration.

Unscrupulous leakers from inside the National Security Council and the National Economic Council, for instance, are outside of Scaramucci's reach.

Scaramucci told reporters on Friday that lead communications strategist Hope Hicks and social media guru Dan Scavino will keep their jobs.

Others, however, could learn their fate soon.

It's unclear whether Short's head is on the chopping block as part of a leak crackdown or as a first step toward shedding a layer of Republican National Committee loyalists who came into the administration with Spicer and White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus.

Short has been a polarizing figure in the White House press shop, helping reporters at some favored news outlets while stonewalling others.

But he insisted Tuesday, speaking to Politico, that he's no leaker.

'Allegations I ever leaked anything are demonstrably false,' he said.

Priebus was chairman of the RNC before taking what has turned out to be an unconventional incarnation of the chief of staff's role.

Spicer was Priebus's national press secretary at the political party's headquarters, where Short reported to him.

On 'Fox News Sunday' two days ago, Scaramucci called press leaks 'not right' and 'not fair to the president.'

'Something's going on inside the White House that the President does not like, and we're going to fix it,' he said.

'I'm going to be very, very clear with people. As far as I’m concerned, that staff has amnesty. We'll see how they do with me at the helm. Everybody in that team can stay as long as they follow the protocol of not leaking.'