President Trump on Tuesday said he has high hopes for embattled Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, who has come under fire for a series of ethics controversies.
“I hope he’s going to be great,” Trump said of Pruitt during a White House meeting with the leaders of three Baltic states.
The White House confirmed earlier Tuesday Trump spoke with his EPA chief late Monday night, during which he reportedly reassured Pruitt that his job is safe and encouraged him to “keep fighting.” White House chief of staff John Kelly reinforced that message in a Tuesday morning call to Pruitt, according to multiple media reports.
Pruitt faced a barrage of unflattering headlines earlier this year over his preference for first and business-class travel on the taxpayer dime. A fresh controversy emerged last week, following reports that he leased a D.C. condo for $50 per night from a lobbyist friend who has clients with various interests in the EPA.
An EPA spokesman confirmed the living arrangement over the weekend, noting that Pruitt moved out of the unit “at the end of July.”
Pruitt also used an agency loophole to offer several-thousand dollar raises to two EPA aides after the White House denied his request to increase their salaries, The Atlantic reported Tuesday. That decision, which Pruitt made earlier this month, “completely gutted any morale” that was left at the agency, one EPA official was quoted as saying.
Trump has already fired his secretary of state, his national security adviser, and his secretary of veterans affairs this month. The president’s comments about Pruitt came hours after the EPA head killed an Obama-era rule on fuel efficiency standards as part of the administration’s broader regulatory rollback.
