If precedent means anything in President Trump’s White House, Scott Pruitt is in trouble.
The embattled EPA chief appeared to be hanging onto his job by a thread when Trump phoned him late Monday night to offer some words of encouragement. Careful not to make any promises about Pruitt’s future, Trump reportedly urged him to “keep fighting” inside the Cabinet-level agency, where holdovers from the previous administration have regularly criticized current leadership for dismantling President Barack Obama’s legacy on climate change.
“Keep your head up,” Trump told Pruitt, according to multiple reports.
Until the news broke earlier this year that Pruitt was regularly purchasing first class seats for himself and his security entourage on the taxpayer dime, the White House and its allies were generally very pleased with Trump’s EPA head.
Pruitt initiated a process last fall to replace the Clean Power Plan, an Obama-era regulation that attracted court challenges in 28 states. The move was cheered by red-state conservatives who saw the rule’s repeal as a win for the coal industry. And on Tuesday, hours after receiving a second phone call about his job from White House chief of staff John Kelly, the EPA chief formally announced the rollback of fuel standards that were imposed by the previous administration.
“These standards that were set were inappropriate and need to be revised,” Pruitt said during a speech at the EPA’s headquarters in Washington. “[We] will set a national standard for greenhouse gas emissions that allows auto manufacturers to make cars that people both want and can afford.”
A Republican close to the White House described Pruitt on Tuesday as “more effective than any other Cabinet secretary, with [Attorney General] Jeff Sessions being the one possible exception.” But the same source said that neither Pruitt’s track record, nor Trump’s phone call, guarantee that “he’ll still be around a week from now.”
Indeed, on two separate occasions last month Trump seemingly offered public or private reassurances to two of his top appointees, Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin and national security adviser H.R. McMaster, just days before he announced their firings via Twitter.
Shulkin never fully recovered from a damaging inspector general report in early March that found issues with his use of taxpayer dollars to partially finance a European vacation last summer. He was fired from his post on March 28, and will be replaced by White House doctor Ronny Jackson, pending Senate confirmation.
The ousted VA secretary later told MSNBC over the weekend that he spoke with Trump the same day he was fired, during which the president not so much as hinted that he was about to lose his job. Shulkin claimed he and Trump had even set up a meeting for the following morning after their call.
“We had set up a meeting for the very next day where I was going to meet him at 11 in the morning,” a still-stunned Shulkin told the network’s Chuck Todd.
Similarly, Trump and senior White House officials told reporters just a week before McMaster was ousted from the West Wing that stories about his forthcoming exit were “very false.”
“They wrote a story about staff changes that was very false. It was a very false story … a very exaggerated story,” the president said in reference to multiple reports that cast doubt on McMaster’s future inside the administration. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders later echoed the president, declaring in a tweet on March 15: “Just spoke to @POTUS and Gen. H.R. McMaster – contrary to reports they have a good working relationship and there are no changes at the [National Security Council].”
Depending on who’s being asked, McMaster “resigned” from the White House on March 22. However, two White House officials told the Washington Examiner he was forced out by the president, who disliked his briefing style and was turned off by his and Rex Tillerson’s friendly rapport. McMaster has been replaced by John Bolton, a famously hawkish ex-diplomat who served in President George W. Bush’s administration.
One senior administration official said Pruitt could outlast Shulkin and McMaster because rumors about his job security have overshadowed news coverage of Trump’s alleged affair with adult actress Stormy Daniels.
“Obviously that won’t last forever,” the official warned.
Meanwhile, Trump has offered cryptic comments about his EPA chief since their conversation Monday evening. Some of which suggest he may leave Pruitt be if his policies make up for the headache he caused the White House.
“I hope he’s going to be great,” the president told reporters during a quadrilateral meeting Tuesday.
