Anthony Scaramucci — ten days a White House communications director, now a cable news fixture — took to CNBC Tuesday morning to declare Donald Trump will get "trounced" in the midterm elections, joining Hillary Clinton on CNN the night before in a coordinated establishment press push to forecast Republican defeat before a single ballot has been certified.
The timing is the tell. On the eve of a midterm, two of Trump's most prominent antagonists were handed prime airtime on major networks to deliver the same message: it's over, don't bother. For Americans watching the machinery of their republic turn, the question isn't whether Scaramucci or Clinton have opinions — it's why institutional media is amplifying them at the exact moment voters are deciding whether to show up.
Scaramucci told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" that Trump "promised affordability, he promised no more forever wars, he promised transparency on the Epstein files" and "didn't deliver on any of that stuff." He claimed "a lot of people inside MAGA" are "breaking from him." CNBC backed the framing with its All-America Economic Survey, reporting Trump's economic approval at an all-time low — 65% disapproving, 80% rating the economy fair or poor.
The White House dismissed Scaramucci in a prior statement to CNBC: his "relevance ended almost a decade ago."
HuffPost ran Clinton's CNN appearance under a headline celebrating that she "did not hold back" — framing a defeated rival with an obvious axe as a sober analyst rather than a partisan combatant. Clinton told Anderson Cooper that Trump has "lost the plot," is "totally unfettered and unhinged," and is focused on building "tributes to himself in the image of himself." She warned: "I do worry about how much more out of control he might get."
CNBC noted prediction markets are pricing a three-in-four chance of Democrats taking the Senate — while quietly acknowledging those platforms "do not use methodologies used by traditional political polling" and are "not substitutes for political polls." That caveat didn't stop the network from featuring the number as though it were a forecast.
What neither outlet surfaced is the institutional alignment on display. Scaramucci, a Wall Street financier who founded SkyBridge Capital, has spent years monetizing his 10-day Trump tenure into a career as a professional anti-Trump voice. Clinton, whose 2016 loss to Trump remains the central wound of the Democratic establishment, is now platformed by HuffPost as a clear-eyed observer. Both are being amplified by major networks at the precise moment their commentary could convince populist voters the outcome is already decided.
Scaramucci also touched on Iran, telling CNBC he was "bearish" on diplomacy after the ballot. The U.S. launched "defensive" strikes on Iran's Qeshm Island overnight, according to CNBC — despite Trump previously stating American forces would not attack Iran before the midterms. Clinton, on CNN, predicted Trump would "most likely launch more attacks on Iran" if Democrats win big.
The certified numbers come Tuesday night. Until then, the only ballots that count are the ones cast — not the ones forecast by people who've built careers on telling Americans the outcome is already settled.
