Trump’s health secy Tom Price quits in latest personnel churn

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST Price resigns after severely criticised for using chartered flights for official travel and racking up a bill of $400,000

Tom Price, the US secretary of health and human services, has become the latest senior official to leave the Trump administration. He resigned on Friday after coming under unrelenting fire for using chartered flights for official travel.

Price had worked up a bill of $400,000 and had sought to offset it with an offer of $52,000, a payment for his own seat on those flights. But that was clearly not enough to mollify President Donald Trump, who had made no attempt to conceal his displeasure.

“I’m not happy, okay,” Trump said to reporters earlier, when asked about Price, “And, you know, this is an administration that saves hundreds of millions of dollars on renegotiating things, on new trade deals…”

Shortly afterwards, the White House announced that Price “offered his resignation earlier today and the President accepted”, and that Trump intended to designate Don J Wright as acting secretary, effective September 29.

And that was yet another churn of personnel in the Trump administration following the exits of a national security adviser, two communications directors, a chief of staff, a press secretary/spokesperson and a chief strategist. But Price was the first cabinet member to go.

The former Congressman from Georgia had built a reputation as a fiscal hawk and a committed opponent of Obamacare, but Trump had been frustrated about the failure to repeal and replace the law.

Already in trouble with Trump, Price was hit by a spate of stories in Politico news website about his extravagant travels.

And he merrily mixed official with non-official. Politico reported a chartered flight Price took to Nashville where he “toured a medicine dispensary, spoke to a local health summit organised by a friend and had lunch with his son”.

Three others are also facing scrutiny for their travels. And there are still others who have earned Trump’s ire for criticising him publicly, such as chief economic adviser Gary Cohn.

There is then the attorney general Jeff Sessions, who had been at the receiving end of a very long and very public rebuke from the president for recusing himself from the Russia probe.

WASHINGTON:

The chief strategist, who was considered the man behind the throne, was fired soon after the Charlottesville race riots The White House press secretary quit after the president decided to bring on board Anthony Scaramucci as communications director The communications director fired after just 11 days because of a late night rant about White House officials The communications director left for “personal reasons", just three months after taking charge The chief of staff never gained Trump's full backing and had no control over who saw, met or spoke to the president The deputy chief of staff Katie Walsh left to lead an outside pro-Trump outfit to support the president’s agenda The national security adviser was the first to be ousted after he lied about his contacts with Russian officials