Trump blames ‘Fake News Media’ for EPA chief’s latest troubles

WASHINGTON — As Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt finds himself consumed by scandal and speculation grows that his days in the Cabinet are numbered, President Donald Trump signaled he plans to keep Pruitt around.

It has been a tough week for Pruitt. The EPA chief is under fire for accepting housing from the wife of a top energy lobbyist at far below market rates, giving large pay raises to a pair of aides against the instructions of the White House, and flying first class around the country and the world at taxpayer expense. His reported taste for sirens and flashing lights, bulletproof cars and soundproof phone booths has also invited ridicule from critics.

But Trump is giving no signal he is prepared to part ways with Pruitt. The president is blaming the media for Pruitt’s troubles.

On Friday morning, he took aim at news reports that Trump was contemplating naming Pruitt as attorney general.

“Do you believe that the Fake News Media is pushing hard on a story that I am going to replace A.G. Jeff Sessions with EPA Chief Scott Pruitt, who is doing a great job but is TOTALLY under siege?,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Do people really believe this stuff ? So much of the media is dishonest and corrupt!”

The missive comes as some conservatives influential with Trump are rallying around the beleaguered EPA chief.

The Wall Street Journal editorial page implored Trump on Friday to keep Pruitt in his job, calling it a test of loyalty for the president.

“If there has been a more consequential Cabinet official, we haven’t seen him,” the editorial said of Pruitt. It accused “the ruling iron triangle of bureaucrats, interest groups and the press” of inflating the ethics questions facing Pruitt to stop him from implementing Trump’s anti-regulatory policy agenda.