Sean Spicer resigns as press secretary after Anthony Scaramucci is appointed communications director

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer resigned on Friday after President Donald Trump hired financier Anthony Scaramucci as his communications director, a White House official said.

The White House communications staff were meeting in Spicer’s office Friday morning after news of his departure was reported.

Scaramucci, 53, a campaign fundraiser for Trump and regular adviser during the presidential transition, has been mentioned for multiple jobs in the administration, most recently as ambassador to the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. He’s also been considered as head of the White House Office of Public Engagement.

Mr. Scaramucci has been an ardent foe of the Department of Labor fiduciary rule, and during the campaign said that as president, Trump would repeal it . He compared the DOL rule to an 1857 Dred Scott Supreme Court ruling which held that African Americans were not U.S. citizens. He made the analogy because he views the DOL rule as discriminatory, Mr. Scaramucci wrote in an email.

He agreed in January to sell his approximately 45 percent stake in SkyBridge Capital. The buyer group included a subsidiary of HNA Group, the Chinese conglomerate, as well as a little-known company called RON Transatlantic.

The New York Times first reported Spicer’s resignation, which it said was in protest over Scaramucci’s hiring.