Anthony Scaramucci explains why Trump called himself a 'nationalist' -- and it's not for the reason you think

Brief White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci went on MSNBC just hours after speaking with President Donald Trump Sunday, and noted the media apparently doesn't understand "what he's doing."

While no one has said Trump "is culpable for lunatics," host Kasie Hunt reminded Scaramucci that it was just a week ago that the president was announcing he was a "nationalist."

"Well, yes. I mean, the answer is yes to that," Scaramucci confessed Trump says such things. "He's clearly not a nationalist. He's saying that at these rallies because he likes riling people up on the left, and he likes riling up his detractors. He also knows it's like --"

"Why would he say he's a nationalist if he's not? That makes no sense," Hunt cut in to ask.

"Okay, why would he say it? See, you're saying it makes no sense, but it makes sense to me, I talked to the president three hours ago, and he was like, you seem to be the only person who understands what I'm doing," Scaramucci said. "Try not to give up my playbook. I'm like, well, it's not that I'm trying to give up your playbook. I wrote a 304-page book about what you did and how you hijacked the base of the Democratic Party. What's happening is academics, journalists, people that are classically in the elite that the blue-collar people in America feel have more or less done a disservice to them, more or less ignored them, and have watched their wages drop by about 30 percent over the last 35 years, are enjoying the sparring that the president is engaging in."

While Scaramucci tried to slip in some information about his book, Hunt was more curious about getting him to talk about the president's claim he's a nationalist.

"We're talking about a shooting at a synagogue," she reminded Scaramucci. She noted that Hitler considered himself a nationalist.

"Socialism has ties to Hitler," Scaramucci countered. "But it's also a more broad thing. You know, the president is basically trying to say that he's putting a group of people that have basically been in a vacuum in our society as it relates to the elites in society, he's putting them on the front burner. And so by saying that and getting the elites upset, it's working. And you guys don't like that, and that's fine, but I would caution people on the Democratic side or the president's adversaries, I would switch up the playbook a little bit, and I would focus more on the people that feel that they have been ignored for the last 35 years."

It remains to be seen how the so-called "elite" is to blame for the president saying he's a nationalist unless it was to do nothing more than get the media to talk about Nazis and white supremacists supporting the president. The argument seemed more an opportunity to name-drop his book than it was about what the president believes.

Scaramucci did concede that those on the left and right have already decided whether Trump is responsible for the bombs and shooting. Instead, he wanted to take a middle ground and note that the president has an opportunity to change it all. He could use his power to de-escalate and bring America together.

Quoting Trump's famous phrase that he could "shoot someone on 5th Avenue and get away with it," Scaramucci noted that if he could do that, then certainly he could use his position to bring people together and he would also not suffer consequences for it from his base.

Watch the video interview below: