WASHINGTON — The cinematic infighting that has consumed the White House in recent days was thrust into public view on Thursday, exposing the West Wing as the political equivalent of a New York-accented reality television show that runs on a raucous mix of drama, machismo, and suspicion.

The new communications director — Anthony Scaramucci, a flashy New York financier — has been trying to oust White House chief of staff Reince Priebus in a foul-mouth campaign fueled by months of brewing animus. Scaramucci accused Priebus of leaking to the media about behind-the-scenes maneuverings and his own personal finances, but his broader intent is to purge senior advisers and low-level staffer who he suspects are not adequately loyal to President Trump.

In an interview with The New Yorker published Thursday, Scaramucci called Priebus a ‘‘f------ paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac’’ and claimed that the former Republican Party chairman will ‘‘be asked to resign very shortly’’ in a sweep he warned could eventually involve much of the staff.

The New Yorker interview gave voice to the profane intensity of the warring West Wing factions that has defined much of Trump’s early administration, but the level of candor and raging frustration Scaramucci expressed yet again stunned a Washington political class that has become increasingly inured to the unorthodoxy of this White House.

At one point in the interview, Scaramucci switched to speaking in the third-person while trying to make his mission clear.

‘‘OK, the Mooch showed up a week ago,’’ he said. ‘‘This is going to get cleaned up very shortly, OK?’’

Scaramucci’s anger toward Priebus was burning long before he joined the White House this week.

After the election, he sold his company, investment fund SkyBridge Capital, in preparation for a job in the White House, only to be blocked by Priebus. Scaramucci was later shuffled into a position at the Export-Import Bank, where he plotted his next move. Last week, Trump surprised Priebus, top adviser Stephen Bannon, and others by announcing that Scaramucci would become the next White House communications director. The news prompted press secretary Sean Spicer, Priebus’s closest ally, to resign.

Priebus is considered an establishment figure in a sea of nontraditional White House staffers, and he has long faced criticism from some of Trump’s staunchest allies who view him as ill-prepared for the job and too concerned about his own reputation. But the attacks that had been quietly waged against him for months in behind-the-scenes trash talk are now being spoken aloud by Scaramucci, who claims he has the president’s blessing to do so.

In the expletive-filled interview with the New Yorker, Scaramucci presented himself as someone who is fully dedicated to the president. He bashed Bannon in sexually explicit terms and accused him of trying to build his ‘‘own brand off the f------ strength of the president."And he angrily lashed out at Priebus for blocking him from the White House for six months and accused him of leaking the details of a Wednesday night dinner with Fox News personality Sean Hannity at the White House to a reporter.

After the article was published, Scaramucci sought to shrug off the controversy with a tweet: ‘‘I sometimes use colorful language. I will refrain in this arena but not give up the passionate fight for @realDonaldTrump’s agenda.’’

The White House at first seemed unfazed by the article or unsure of how to respond. Incoming press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders pointed reporters to Scaramucci’s tweet and said ‘‘we’re working on health care.’’

Spicer, who will soon leave the White House, walked by reporters staking out his office and passed on the opportunity to comment.

But by early Thursday evening, Sanders spoke to reporters outside the West Wing saying Scaramucci has ‘‘made pretty clear he’s a passionate guy. I think he might sometimes let that passion get the better of him. I think maybe that happened and he used some colorful language that I don’t anticipate he’ll do again.’’

Asked if Trump needs to step in to referee the infighting on his staff, she touted the president’s business career and said, ‘‘I think he knows when he needs to play a role and when he does, he will.’’

Scaramucci took over the communications job on Wednesday, even though he wasn’t supposed to start until Aug. 15 — a move that a White House official said was designed to thwart any attempt by Priebus to derail Scaramucci yet again.

Scaramucci and his allies are compiling a diagram of the news organizations that they suspect received leaked information from Priebus, and they plan to present it to the president on Friday, according to a White House official who asked for anonymity to discuss the plan of attack.

‘‘If Reince wants to explain that he’s not a leaker, let him do that,’’ Scaramucci said in an interview with CNN early Thursday morning.

On Fox News, Kellyanne Conway, a senior counselor to the president, described the leaks that Scaramucci was ranting about as ‘‘people using the press to shiv each other in the ribs.’’