Scaramucci to Trump: 'Get out of politics' and go back to business

On his final day as president of the United States, Donald Trump told supporters at Joint Base Andrews that it was a great honor to serve and vowed, “We will be back in some form.”

Just what that “form” is, is up for debate. Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate is expected to begin the week of Feb. 8. If convicted, he would be banned from running for office in the future, and that would include an anticipated run for the presidency in 2024.

“I personally would like to see him get out of politics and back to business,” Trump’s former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci told Yahoo Finance Live.

But getting back to business has its own challenges. Both the Manhattan district attorney and the New York state attorney are investigating Trump’s businesses, and many of his resorts were losing millions of dollars a year, even before the coronavirus pandemic struck. After he was accused of inciting the deadly riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, a number of businesses moved to distance themselves from Trump and his brand.

The PGA canceled an upcoming tournament at Trump’s golf course in Bedminster, N.J., and New York City moved to strip him of contracts to run several high-profile venues including two ice rinks in Central Park.

Trump has hundreds of millions of dollars in personal debts due within the next four years, and Forbes estimates that his net worth fell by $600 million in a year to $2.5 billion.

Still, Scaramucci said he wouldn’t write Trump off.

“He's a resourceful person. So people that are going to report on his demise as a business person should go back to the early '90s when he had a series of bankruptcies that he survived and ended up flourishing after those bankruptcies,” said Scaramucci. “I think he's done a lot of favors for people. Remember, he's curried favor with autocrats and dictators around the world for the last four years.”

In the final hours of his term, Trump rescinded an executive order he had issued in 2016 barring former White House employees from lobbying the government after they leave their jobs.

Scaramucci said Trump will use that to his advantage. “He's going to be looking for favors from all those people that he put into powerful positions.

“I do think that he has assets in his favor,” said Scaramucci. “That would be my recommendation to him. If his business is weak now as a result of the pandemic or his destruction of his personal brand and his businesses's brand, focus on the business, get out of politics, and try to revitalize it.”

Alexis Christoforous is an anchor and reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @AlexisTVNews.

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