It sure sounds like Trump’s VA secretary should be dusting off his resume
March 26, 2018 by admin
Filed under Choosing Lingerie
A confidant of President Trump said the commander-in-chief’s “perplexed” by reports the White House is engulfed in chaos because of staff turnover but said “one or two major changes” are still coming.
“He told me he thinks the White House is operating like a smooth machine – his words,” Christopher Ruddy said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week. “He did say that he’s expecting to make one or two major changes to his government very soon and that’s going to be it.”
Ruddy, the founder of the Newsmax website, said the president told him on Saturday that Veterans Affairs secretary David Shulkin will be out “very soon.”
But, he said, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson are safe for now.
“But other reports, people like Ben Carson, I’m told that the president is happy with the job he’s doing, he will be staying; chief of Staff Kelly, the president is happy with the job he is doing, he will be staying,” Ruddy said.
Other media outlets, including the Associated Press and the Axios website, also reported Sunday that Shulkin could be gone this week and that Kelly and Carson are safe.
A source told the AP that the chances of Sulkin’s ouster in the next day or two are at “50-50.”
The Trump administration is looking at about six candidates to replace Shulkin, including Fox News anchor Pete Hegseth, a former military officer and former CEO of the Concerned Veterans of America, the AP report said.
Along with Hegseth, other candidates are former Rep. Jeff Miller, the Republican chair of the House Veterans Affairs Committee; retired Army Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg; Toby Cosgrove, former president and CEO of the Cleveland Clinic; and Leo Mackay Jr., a former VA deputy secretary.
The president, Kelly, the White House Office of Presidential Personnel and the head of Trump’s Domestic Policy Council are leading the replacement search and asking friends and allies for recommendations.
Turnover in the Trump administration has set a dizzying pace.
In March alone, White House budget director Gary Cohn, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, national security adviser H.R. McMaster and deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe have all left.
Shulkin, appointed by former President Obama, came under fire for accepting a 10-day trip to London and Denmark last year with his wife that included sightseeing excursions and tickets to Wimbledon.
Carson has also been criticized for picking a $31,000 dining room set for his Washington headquarters.
He threw his wife under the bus at first, saying she and a HUD assistant selected the pricey furniture, but finally told a Senate committee hearing, “I take responsibility.”
