Anthony Scaramucci, who served just 11 days as White House communications director in July 2017 — one of the shortest tenures in the position's history — has become a frequent critic of the president during Trump's second term. After reports surfaced that Trump switched planes, concealed himself in a catering cart, and deployed a separate aircraft carrying reporters as a decoy in response to an assassination threat, Scaramucci took to X to mock the president as a "coward."

"This image of Trump in the catering cart is going to be hard to shake," Scaramucci posted on X, sharing an unverified image of Trump purportedly hiding in a cart. "You know he's livid that it got out. If he wasn't a coward, he would've told them, no chance I'm doing that."

George Conway, a conservative attorney formerly married to Trump's first-term counselor Kellyanne Conway, chimed in with a remark about the president's weight. Retweeting Tommy Vietor — a former National Security Council staffer under President Barack Obama — who wrote that "the mental image of Trump hiding from Iran in a catering cart is devastating. A weak, stupid old man hiding from the consequences of his own decision while endangering others," Conway added: "Agree. But also, I'm incredibly impressed with the physical strength and toughness of the catering cart. Wow." Vietor's reference to Iran aligns with longstanding U.S. intelligence assessments regarding Iranian plots targeting current and former U.S. officials.

Democratic strategist Christopher Webb joined in, sharing a montage of images purporting to show Trump in various carts. "The catering cart memes are doing me in," he wrote. "Please add any I missed in the replies. We need this laugh."

Speaking to AlterNet, psychiatrist Dr. Henry Abraham — formerly a professor at Tufts University and lead author of a letter signed earlier this year by three dozen medical professionals warning of the president's apparent cognitive decline — said Trump's decision to risk journalists' lives to protect himself should be understood through the lens of apparent narcissism. Such public assessments of political figures' mental health have been a subject of debate within the psychiatric community, as the American Psychiatric Association's "Goldwater rule" discourages members from offering professional opinions about individuals they have not personally examined.

"Calling him a coward is a moral judgment, it's not a term of art in psychology," Abraham told AlterNet. "There's no disease called cowardice. But it is cowardly."

Abraham explained that Trump's willingness to endanger others to save himself stems from a psychological inability to empathize, particularly with those he perceives as adversaries.

"He has narcissistic entitlement because he's the president," Abraham said. "He is entitled to be protected, but he's throwing the press corps potentially to the wolves. Is this an unethical behavior? Yes. Is this cowardly? Sure. What is the psychological underpinning of this? Well, his degree of self-absorption and his inability to have empathy with the potential risks, dangers, and suffering of others. That's who he is."

Scaramucci offered a similar assessment of Trump in July, though not in clinical terms, observing that those who work closely with the president do not genuinely like him. He is among several former Trump administration officials — including former national security adviser John Bolton and former chief of staff John Kelly — who have publicly broken with the president since leaving their posts.

"Here's what I've observed about everyone around Trump," Scaramucci posted on X. "Nobody likes him. I don't think his family members like him. I don't think his cabinet members really like him. They kiss his a—— because he's powerful."

"The people who genuinely like him are one or two electron orbits away, close enough to feel the warmth, far enough to avoid the heat," Scaramucci added. "I don't know a single person in his inner circle who came out unscathed."