The only White House communications chief to be fired quicker than Scaramucci was a Nazi sympathiser
Reagan hire was sacked within his first week
Anthony Scaramucci might occupy a few lines in future political history books with his remarkably short tenure as White House Communications director, but it is not even the shortest.
Forced out 10 days after he started, his brief stint was marked by public battle with former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus only to have John Kelly, the new chief of staff, orchestrate his removal, according to two people knowledgeable about the decision. But John Koehler, who was the chief communicator for Ronald Reagan in March 1987, had an even shorter tenure.
Koehler arrived at the White House with a glittering communications resume. He retired from Associated Press in 1985 as an assistant general manager and took a job with the US Information Agency, the now-defunct State Department arm used to promote US diplomatic efforts among foreign audiences.
German-born Koehler took over in the waning years of the cold war with personal and professional animosity for the Soviet Union. He translated for the US Army during the second world war as a teenager before Soviets closed in on his hometown of Dresden, the German city that sat on the Red Army’s southern approach to Berlin. He then served as a US Army officer in the 1950s.
He told Associated Press on February 18 that he accepted the job during a 15-minute meeting with Reagan, adding that “I am going to be as low-key as I can”.
But like Scaramucci the controversy surrounding Koehler’s appointment began even before his first day in the West Wing.