White House again in chaos, and it’s not over
Trump’s Cabinet battles scandal, irrelevance
NEW YORK — One Cabinet member was grilled by Congress about alleged misuse of taxpayer funds for private flights. Another faced an extraordinary revolt within his own department amid a swirling ethics scandal. A third has come under scrutiny for her failure to answer basic questions about her job in a nationally televised interview.
And none of them was the one Trump fired.
President Donald Trump’s Cabinet in recent weeks has been enveloped in controversy, undermining the administration’s ability to advance its agenda. Trump’s ouster of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday may have just been the first salvo in a shakeup of a Cabinet that, with few exceptions, has been a team of rivals for bad headlines and largely sidelined by the White House.
“Donald Trump is a lone-wolf president who doesn’t want to cogovern with anybody and doesn’t want anyone else getting the credit,” said presidential historian Douglas Brinkley of Rice University. “For his Cabinet, he brought in a bizarre strand of outsiders and right-wing ideologues. Many are famed conservatives or wealthy business people, but that doesn’t mean you understand good governance.”
‘Get rid of dead weight’
On Tuesday, the president hinted after firing Tillerson that more changes may be forthcoming.
“I’ve gotten to know a lot of people very well over the last year,” Trump told reporters at the White House, “and I’m really at a point where we’re getting very close to having the Cabinet and other things that I want.”
His new picks for secretary of state and CIA director are running into potential roadblocks among Republicans in the Senate, suggesting a difficult confirmation process.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, said Wednesday he will oppose Trump’s decision to replace Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo and to nominate Deputy CIA Director Gina Haspel to lead the nation’s spy agency. Both in the past have supported waterboarding and other “enhanced interrogation techniques” that Paul said are unacceptable forms of torture.
“I’m going to do everything I can to block them,” said Paul, who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that plans to take up Pompeo’s nomination next month.
The White House is pushing for rapid confirmation.
Trump’s esteem for the Cabinet has faded, according to two White House officials and two outside advisers. He also told confidants that he was in the midst of making changes to, according to one person who spoke with him, “get rid of the dead weight” — which could put a number of embattled Cabinet secretaries on notice.
The officials all spoke on condition of anonymity.
Ethics questions abound
Last summer he began publicly bashing Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a former close adviser. Furious that the attorney general recused himself from the Russia probe that has loomed over the White House, Trump has privately mused about firing Sessions and taken to delivering unprecedented Twitter broadsides against him.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke underwent questioning Tuesday by Senate Democrats, who accused him of spending tens of thousands of dollars on office renovations and private flights while proposing deep cuts to conservation programs.
Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin’s days on the job may be limited after a bruising internal report found ethics violations in connection with his trip to Europe with his wife last summer, according to senior administration officials. He also has faced a potential mutiny from his own staff.
Trump has floated the notion of moving Energy Secretary Rick Perry to the VA.
Perry, after a Senate hearing Wednesday, said he was not interested in changing jobs. “I am energy secretary from now until the forseeable future. Happily.” Others under the microscope:
White House aides deemed Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ recent appearance on “60 Minutes” a disaster as she struggled to defend the administration’s school safety plan and could not answer basic questions about the nation’s education system.
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson came under fire last month after reports his agency was spending $31,000 for a new dining set, a purchase HUD officials said was made without Carson’s knowledge.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt has faced questions about $25,000 spent on a soundproof “privacy booth” inside his office to prevent eavesdropping on his phone calls and another $9,000 on biometric locks.
The first Cabinet member to depart his post, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, resigned last fall following reports he spent at least $400,000 in taxpayer funds on private jets for himself and his staff.