Scaramucci Warns Bessent and Lutnick Caught 'Potomac Fever'
Anthony Scaramucci says DC changes everyone who enters it — and Trump's top economic picks are no exception.
Anthony Scaramucci knows the feeling firsthand. The former White House communications director — who lasted all of 11 days in the job — told CNBC that he once suffered from what insiders call 'Potomac fever,' the intoxicating belief that you're sharp enough to bend Washington to your will. Spoiler: you're not.
'You think you're smarter than the people that live in Washington, but Washington changes you, you don't change Washington,' Scaramucci said bluntly. It's a warning shot aimed directly at Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, two Wall Street heavyweights now deep inside the Trump administration.
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The diagnosis matters for traders. Bessent came in as a macro hedge fund legend with strong views on fiscal discipline. Lutnick built Cantor Fitzgerald into a fixed-income powerhouse. Both were known quantities with clear market-moving worldviews. Potomac fever, if Scaramucci's theory holds, means those worldviews get quietly reshaped by political survival instincts — not economic logic.
Scaramucci's read is that no one escapes the gravitational pull of DC. The city rewards loyalty and compliance over independent thinking. If Bessent and Lutnick are already symptomatic, traders betting on policy consistency from either man may want to hedge that assumption. Personnel is policy — until Washington rearranges the personnel.
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