US aide took security squad to Disneyland

President backs his environment chief despite concerns about his expenses and views

DONALD TRUMP has waded into the war over his embattled environment chief by saying Scott Pruitt’s position is safe for now.

Senior aides have told the president to fire Mr Pruitt amid reports he has spent $3million on security, and after attracting ridicule for installing a soundproof booth and renting an apartment from the wife of an energy lobbyist.

Supporters insist that the head of the Environment Protection Agency is an effective figure, delivering on election promises to roll back Obama-era regulations designed to protect air and water quality.

Mr Trump used Twitter to express his support for his adviser.

“While Security spending was somewhat more than his predecessor, Scott Pruitt has received death threats because of his bold actions at EPA. Record clean Air & Water while saving USA Billions of Dollars,” he wrote.

EPA officials claim “unprecedented” levels of threat justify a 20-member full-time security detail.

However, analysts suggest his fate illustrates the tensions at work inside the administration, where loyalty to the president and his base counts more than a good track record.

Congress is already examining Mr Pruitt’s travel arrangements. He faces further questions about his use of a room in a Washington town house owned by the wife of an energy lobbyist for which he paid just $50 a night – estimated to be about one third of the usual price. Mr Trump shrugged off that allegation too. “Rent was about market rate, travel expenses OK. Scott is doing a great job,” he said.

John Kelly, Mr Trump’s chief of staff, is among the White House voices urging the president to fire Mr Pruitt.

His record has become a lightning conductor for criticism from both Left and Right, as his scepticism on climate change and spending of public money attracts negative attention.

He reportedly requested that his motorcade use lights and sirens to speed trips through Washington when he was late for meetings or flights, and on one occasion when he was rushing to dinner at a French restaurant.

Travel schedules obtained by a Democratic critics show multiple EPA security agents accompanied Mr Pruitt on a family holiday to California that included a day at Disneyland and a New Year’s Day American football game.

There are also some unusual EPA purchases, including a $43,000 (£30,000) soundproof telephone booth for his third-floor office.

Jeanne Zaino, professor of political science at Iona College, New York, said Mr Pruitt’s survival would not come down to policies or his reputation in Congress but ultimately to his personal relationship with the president.

“The allegations against him are very, very serious and in almost any other administration he would have been out already,” she said.

Mike Rounds, a Republican senator, yesterday told NBC’S Meet the Press: “The reason why all of the emphasis right now is on Mr Pruitt is because he is executing these policies – and these are not real popular policies with a lot of people – but he is executing the policies that this president said he would put in place.”