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By Jordan King
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A former White House Communications Director said he believes there is a chance Donald Trump may drop out of the presidential race.
Anthony Scaramucci, who worked in the role under Trump for just 11 days in July 2017, posted on X, formerly Twitter: "Not over yet. Trump may leave the race. Just watch his poll numbers plummet and see what happens.
"We fight tirelessly no matter what for Freedom, for the Republic, for the Democracy and to end the threat of Tyranny."
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He simply posted the line: "Don't be surprised if Donald Trump drops out of the race."
Trump has not said anything to this effect. And, when contacted for a response, Trump's team told Newsweek: "We're not going to listen to someone who barely lasted more time than an expired ham sandwich as White House communications director."
Scaramucci has been a vocal critic of Trump since he was sacked from the administration. He endorsed President Joe Biden when he was the Democratic nominee and has previously expressed his willingness to work "tirelessly" to support Democrats against Trump.
Trump is still generally ahead in the polls, with RealClear Polling putting his average at 48.1 percentage points, ahead of Kamala Harris' 46.1 percentage points.
A recent New York Times/Siena College poll, carried out among 1,142 registered voters between July 22 and July 24, found that Trump was enjoying a two-percentage-point lead with 48 percent over Harris, who has 46 percent. The poll has a 3.3 percentage point margin of error.
That said, Harris does seem to have tightened the race, catching up with Trump in the very short space of time since President Joe Biden withdrew from the race on July 21.
For comparison, Joe Biden was six percentage points behind Trump, with 43 percent to Trump's 49 percent, in the New York Times/Sienna College poll carried out in the aftermath of his poor performance in the Atlanta presidential debate on June 27. This poll saw 1,532 registered voters questioned between June 28 and July 2, it has a 2.8 percentage point margin of error.
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It comes as Trump is facing heat for his interview at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) convention on Wednesday.
Among several other points of contention, Trump has been criticized for questioning Harris' race.
ABC News correspondent Rachel Scott asked him about Republican attacks that Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee, is a "DEI candidate." Critics say the attack is racially charged, arguing that her previous positions as attorney general, senator and vice president qualify her for the position.
Trump repeatedly asked her to define "DEI." When Scott followed up by asking if he believes Harris became the nominee only because of her race, Trump said he did not know she was Black for years.
"She was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage," he said. "I didn't know she was Black until a couple of years ago when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black."
Harris is the child of Jamaican and Indian immigrants. She has, indeed, spoken about her and her family's "pride in their South Asian roots," as she wrote in her 2019 autobiography The Truths We Hold: An American Journey.
But she also wrote in the same book that her "mother understood very well that she was raising two Black daughters" and "knew that her adopted homeland would see Maya and (Harris) as Black girls, and she was determined to make sure (they) would grow into confident, proud Black women."
Harris addressed questions about her race during a 2019 appearance for The Breakfast Club, she said: "I'm Black, and I'm proud of being Black. I was born Black. I will die Black, and I'm not going to make excuses for anybody because they don't understand."
Before that, in a 2015 interview with the Los Angeles Times, she spoke about how the neighbors' kids were not allowed to play with her and her sister "because they were Black." She also said that she "grew up going to a Black Baptist Church and a Hindu temple."
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre slammed the remarks about Harris in a press conference.
"As a person of color, as a Black woman, who is in this position, that is standing before you at this podium, what he just said, what you just read out to me is repulsive," she said. "It's insulting, and no one has any right to tell someone who they are, how they identify. That is no one's right. That is someone's own decision."
Some defended Trump, including conservative commentator Greg Price, who said: "ABC's Rachel Scott opens her interview with President Trump at the NABJ conference by calling him a racist for criticizing black politicians and journalists. Trump gives a masterful response while also mentioning how he showed up while Kamala Harris did not."
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