Although the going line from the Trump administration is that everything inside the White House is getting along just fine, all it takes is a quick look at the news to see that such is not the case.
The record fast rate at which senior staff members left the Trump administration during its first year in power has hardly slowed now that the Trump administration’s second year has dawned. Already this year, the president has lost or been revealed to soon be losing officials including his Secretary of State, top economic adviser, White House communications director, and White House staff secretary.
These individuals haven’t all left on the best terms with the White House; former staff secretary Rob Porter, for instance, left under a cloud of scandal associated with allegations of domestic violence.
Another Trump administration official recently had a cloud of scandal fall on them, and now, the Associated Press is reporting the not entirely surprising story that the president is preparing to soon fire him.
Last month, an absolutely scathing report from the inspector general overseeing the Veterans Administration came out that alleged that VA Secretary David Shulkin had misused official funds and time while on a trip overseas last year that was supposed to be for official government business.
Instead of that being how the trip actually went, Shulkin spent a considerable amount of time sightseeing with his wife — having had a staff member essentially act as their travel assistant. The only reason his wife even came along, according to the report in question, was because one of his staff members had doctored an official email in order to procure taxpayer funding for her travel.
That staff member of Shulkin’s, Chief of Staff Vivieca Wright Simpson, resigned a short time after news of the scandal broke. Shulkin — who has reportedly reimbursed the government for his wife’s travel expenses, a total that came to $4,312 — claimed at one point that the email had been doctored by someone who hacked into Simpson’s email account.
That’s not where the story of his corruption even ends, however. Besides the fact that Shulkin improperly accepted free Wimbledon tickets for him and his wife and then misrepresented his relationship to the person behind the tickets, the Associated Press also reports:
‘A separate VA watchdog investigation, due out in the coming weeks, is… looking into a complaint that Shulkin asked his security detail to accompany him to a Home Depot store and cart furniture items, according to two people familiar with the allegation who requested anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.’
This guy just can’t get enough of using his official position for personal enrichment, can he.
Ironically, that puts him in much the same boat as the president himself, whose family business has garnered significant profits during his time in the White House thanks in large part to his continued patronizing of his own businesses.
Despite this similarity between the president and Shulkin, Trump is reportedly looking to see him out of the White House. Two officials speaking to the AP said that an announcement about Shulkin’s departure could come as early as “this week.” One of them said that they would rate the chances of that announcement coming within a day or two at “50-50.”
The candidates the president is looking at to replace Shulkin include Fox & Friends contributor Pete Hegseth, former U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, former VA undersecretary of health Michael Kussman, former president and CEO of the Cleveland Clinic Toby Cosgrove, and former VA deputy secretary and current senior vice president at Lockheed Martin Corp. Leo Mackay Jr.
Featured Image via Chip Somodevilla/ Getty Images
