According to a report by The Associated Press, President Donald Trump is planning on firing David Shulkin, the Veterans Affairs Secretary.
A source has disclosed that there is a “50 – 50” chance that David Shulkin will be fired by the President in the coming days.
Another source revealed to the AP that the White House has found 6 replacements for David Shulkin, including Pete Hegseth – the “Fox & Friends” contributor and former CEO of the conservative organization Concerned Veterans for America, Keith Kellogg – retired U.S Army Late General, and Toby Cosgrove – the CEO and former President of the Cleveland Clinic Toby Cosgrove.
A spokesman for the Veterans Affairs claimed that were no staff changes in the department that need to be announced.
“There are no personnel changes to announce at the Department of Veterans Affairs. President Trump has made clear that he expects the Department’s sole focus to be on providing quality care to America’s veterans who have sacrificed to keep this country free and safe,” said the press secretary Curt Cashour.
A report by an inspector general reveals that Shulkin has misused the taxpayer money by spending it on a lavish travel with his family, for which he has faced a considerable backlash.
The report disclosed that the Wimbledon tennis tournament tickets, which was held in London, were wrongly accepted by David Shulkin, and he traveled to Europe using the taxpayer funds. The whole trip had a total cost of around 122,000 dollars.
According to a report revealed earlier this month, there was a lot of tension between Shulkin and his staff members due to the disagreements he had regarding the political appointees chosen by President Trump.
“Things have come to a grinding halt,” one of the senior managers claimed. “It’s killing the agency. Nobody trusts each other.”
John Ullyot, the public affairs chief, Brooks Tucker, the head of legislative affairs and Jake Leinenkugel, the top aide, along with other officials in the department, have sought David Shulkin’s dismissal, according to a recent report.
“The President has a large number of individuals that are working hard to make sure that the VA is helping veterans at the best level possible,” said Sarah Huckabee, the White House press secretary, a few weeks ago.
“We continue to review if there is anything we can do to improve on this. … I don’t have any personnel announcements but we’re looking for how to better the system every day. Whether it is through policy or personnel changes, not just at the top but across the board, we made a number of changes within the personnel and we’re making sure we’re looking at how to best serve our nation’s veterans.”
Lately, President Trump has been making major personnel changes to the Trump Administration. He had declared earlier this month that he would be dismissing Rex Tillerson, the State Secretary, and replacing him with Mike Pompeo, the CIA Director.
Chris Ruddy, the Newsmax CEO and Trump ally, said on Sunday that the President might be making one or more changes to the staff members.
“Now, other White House sources, not the President, tell me that Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin is likely to depart the Cabinet very soon,” said Ruddy.
