How Barack Obama shut down Donald Trump's new communications director Anthony Scaramucci in 2010

Audience cheers former President's put-down

Anthony Scaramucci, the new White House communications cirector, was once berated by Barack Obama during a town hall debate in 2010.

In the newly resurfaced CNBC footage, Mr Scaramucci, who was a hedge fund manager at the time, told the former President: “I represent the Wall Street community, we have felt like a pinata, maybe you don't feel like you're whacking us with a stick but we certainly feel like we've been whacked with a stick.

“I certainly think that Main Street and Wall Street are connected, and if we’re going to heal the society and make the economy better, how are we going to work towards that, healing Wall Street and Main Street?”

Mr Obama replied: “I have been amused over the last couple of years, this sense of somehow me beating up on Wall Street. I think most people on Main Street feel they got beat up on.”

The audience cheered at his response, and he continued: "And I'll be honest with you. There’s a big chunk of the country that thinks that I have been too soft on Wall Street. And that's probably the majority, not the minority."

Donald Trump's new communications director and Mr Obama were Harvard Law School classmates and played basketball together.

Mr Scaramucci once said that Mr Obama has "the best smile in American politics since Jack Kennedy" and even donated to his 2008 presidential campaign.

However, his opinion appears to have changed at some point during Mr Obama's first term in office, just after the economic crisis.

Since taking on his new role, the combative Wall Street financier deleted several of his previous Twitter posts questioning Mr Trump's decisions.

He said his own views had evolved and what he said in the past shouldn't be a distraction.

Social media users quickly recirculated past tweets by Mr Scaramucci that were at odds with Mr Trump's views, including one that praised Hillary Clinton's competence.

Other repurposed tweets expressed support for stronger gun laws, which he tweeted about in August 2012. In May 2016, he expressed displeasure with individuals who believe climate change is a hoax. Mr Trump has at times referred to global warming as a hoax.

"Full transparency: I'm deleting old tweets. Past views evolved & shouldn't be a distraction. I serve [Mr Trump's] agenda and that's all that matters," Mr Scaramucci said Saturday in the first of a pair of messages on the subject.

"The politics of 'gotcha' are over. I have a thick skin and we're moving on to [the President's] agenda serving the American people," he added.