When only 536 individuals control a $4 trillion federal budget, it's inevitable that individuals with wealth at stake and companies receiving contracts from the federal government will spend a fortune on lobbying. That was part of Anthony Scaramucci's explanation for why President Trump has found it so difficult to accomplish his goal of draining the lobbyist-infested swamp that has created a dysfunctional government.

Our system gives one president, 100 senators and 435 congressmen authority to spend 22.5 percent of GDP. It  explains why, as Mark Twain said more than a century ago, we have the best government money can buy.

The longtime hedge fund executive, who served for 10 days as White House communications director, shared his insights with financial advisors yesterday at Financial Advisor's eighth annual Inside Alternatives conference in Denver. Scaramucci proved to be an entertaining, self-deprecating speaker and revealed a remarkable degree of knowledge about foreign affairs, prompting a few advisors to wonder why he was asked to fill a job for which he had little experience when the Trump administration is vastly understaffed at the State Department and other international agencies.

Scaramucci said President Trump asked him to be "a hatchet man" as communications director and his 10-day tenure coincided with the sacking of White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and the resignation of press secretary Sean Spicer. Upon accepting the job, he knew his Washington career would have the shelf life of "a carton of milk," even though the president said his job was safe the day before he was fired.

National security advisor H.R. McMaster, a close friend of Scaramucci's, had planned to throw him a welcome party that final Monday. It turned into a farewell party, though the Mooch was informed he lasted longer than several other White House aides.

Many think that White House chief of staff Gen. John Kelly removed him as communications director because of some profanity-laced remarks about the president's first chief strategist, Steve Bannon. Yesterday, Scaramucci was more cerebral, though still critical, in his comments about Bannon.

One issue that was not addressed was the president's fitness, psychology wise, and his tendency to view people and his experiences in black and white terms. In Trumpworld, people are either spectacularly brilliant or total disasters. Asked about that, Scaramucci offered little evidence. But he suggested that he suspected the president's father, New York real estate tycoon Fred Trump, treated his son in that manner when he entered the family business.

Washington was dysfunctional long before President Trump took office. But Scaramucci said some Trump advisors like Bannon had unrealistic expectations.

In a conversation before his talk, Scaramucci said Bannon has a "messiah complex." For people like that, it's "100 percent or nothing." Bannon left the White House shortly after Scaramucci and is now crisscrossing the country trying to take down GOP senators with the financial support of hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer.

Scaramucci acknowledged that the president's tweeting habits helped him get elected but are no longer serving his cause. Tweeting about "Mika Brzezinski's face-lift" isn't "super-productive." But at 71 years old, the president "isn't going to change."

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