HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Secretary Tom Price’s use of taxpayer-paid charter planes draws the ire of the president.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he was “not happy” about Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price’s repeated use of expensive taxpayerfunded charter flights, and did not rule out firing the Cabinet member.
“I’m not happy about it. I’m going to look at it. I am not happy about it and I let him know it,” Trump told reporters before leaving the White House to fly to Indiana to announce his tax plan.
Asked if he had confidence in Price, Trump repeated his displeasure.
When Trump was asked if he planned to fire Price, he replied: “We’ll see.”
Politico has documented more than two dozen charter flights taken by Price, costing taxpayers more than $400,000. They included visits to a resort where Price owns land and, separately, to a lunch with his son.
In a series of articles that began late last week, Politico reported that the former congressman had taken private planes despite the availability of commercial transportation. Politico said Tuesday that a flight to the resort island of St. Simons, Ga., last month came nearly two days before a public appearance nearby.
The trip, which included lunch with Price’s son, came in June, Politico said. Price made two brief appearances in Nashville before and after the lunch. The flight cost $17,760 round trip, while a seat on similarly timed commercial flight could have been purchased for less than $350, Politico said.
The inspector general of the Health and Human Services Department is probing the flights, and the House Oversight Committee has asked the White House and various agencies to turn over information about private flights.
Such flights are typically not allowed if there are cheaper commercial options. Politico cited vastly less expensive options available at the same time as Price’s flights.
Trump’s remarks were the latest example of the White House distancing itself from Price’s actions. On Monday, when asked about the flights during a media briefing, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said twice that “this wasn’t White House-approved travel.”
The president has had public spats with others in his administration. He blistered Attorney General Jeff Sessions after Sessions recused himself from the Justice Department’s investigation of Russian tampering in the 2016 elections, a decision that Trump blamed for the later appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller. He also was angered when economic adviser Gary Cohn publicly criticized Trump’s response to the white supremacist march and ensuing violence in Charlottesville, Va.
Neither man has left the administration.
Price told Fox News on Saturday that his department was conducting a review of the flights. He acknowledged that “the optics in some of this don’t look good.”
“I don’t think there would be any charter trips until this review is complete,” he said.