A major split has emerged between President Trump’s White House and the Department of Veterans Affairs over whether VA employees should be allowed to tweet out anti-Trump messages.
The issue has come up as more tweets have emerged in which senior-level VA officials have mocked Trump on Twitter, posted stories that put Trump in a bad light, and compared his victory to the rise of fascism.
A senior speechwriter for the VA who remains in the agency under Trump went so far last year to say that after Trump’s election, he hasn’t “felt this bad since 9/11, and I was in the Pentagon.”
On Wednesday, the White House told the Washington Examiner that administration officials want all federal employees to support Trump and his policy goals.
“Employees of the Trump administration should support President Trump and his agenda to improve the lives of all Americans,” a White House spokesman said.
But on the same day, the VA told the Washington Examiner that they would not be pushing their workers to publicly support Trump. Instead, the VA is allowing their employees to say whatever they like, as long as it isn’t done during work hours.
“Like other federal employees, VA employees have a constitutionally protected right to freedom of speech in their private lives, including during non-duty hours (e.g., lunch break),” the VA’s Office of General Counsel said. The VA offered no other answers to questions about whether VA workers have been warned not to tweet against Trump, or whether there would be any repercussions for doing so.
That split could quickly test the limits of what the White House is willing to accept. The Trump administration has already fired a few people after the discovery of anti-Trump opinions that were expressed during last year’s election.
Examples of anti-Trump opinions seem to be piling up at the VA. The VA’s comment about its Twitter policy was a response to questions about a public outreach official who was found to be tweeting against Trump ever since he was elected.
Tim Lawson, who hosts the VA’s podcasts, said in the hours after the November election that he wasn’t ready to accept Trump, and retweeted other tweets that accused Trump of lying. But a VA spokesman said Lawson’s supervisor believes that “whatever personal opinions he has in no way affect his ability to do his job.”
Other examples have emerged since last week. Ed Ledford, a top speechwriter at the VA, tweeted “welcome to the world of fascism” after Trump won the election. He also compared Trump’s victory to 9/11:
Brandon Fureigh, who works as a senior adviser for strategic engagement at the VA, tweeted in December, “I despise what this man is doing to our country,” according to an archived copy of his tweet.
Fureigh’s Twitter account has since been blocked to the general public.
Other VA officials have been less direct in their criticism of Trump, but have been retweeting messages that oppose Trump. Kayla Williams, director of the VA Center for Women Veterans, has retweeted messages that oppose Trump’s immigration ban, and on Nov. 9, she retweeted a message saying women should get their IUDs now before Trump ends contraceptive coverage:
Insured? Get your IUD now, before Trump-Pence reverse the requirement for full contraceptive coverage. https://t.co/oiQ6mvT1Ix
— Jane Doe, MD (@DrJaneChi) November 9, 2016
Those messages seem to be at odds with the message delivered by White House spokesman Sean Spicer on Wednesday. He said all federal employees should be on board with the changes President Trump is looking to pursue.
“No matter what position you have, whether it’s the lowest or the highest in the White House or in a department or agency, we should be making sure that people who are coming in as appointees of the President support the President’s agenda,” he told reporters. “We are going to ensure that people who are political appointees share the vision and agenda that the president campaigned on and is implementing.”
Because Spicer’s vision hasn’t been realized at the VA yet, close watchers of the VA are anxious for Trump to quickly bring in his own people and recast the sprawling, scandal-prone department to his liking.
Pete Hegseth, an Army veteran and veterans advocate who was considered as a candidate to lead Trump’s VA, told the Washington Examiner that the anti-Trump tweets pouring out of the VA show an “arrogance” that needs to be corrected.
“It is complete and utter hubris. It’s arrogance,” said Hegseth.
“These examples are a demonstration of the depth of the swamp and the extent to which the civil service bureaucrats are entrenched in siding with the unions,” he said. Hegseth added they also indicate many in the VA could seek to block or delay the reforms Trump proposes for the agency.
“There is a reason to think they will work against him,” he said.
Reforms aside, there’s also a growing fear that the anti-Trump sentiment at the VA could distract from the VA’s main mission: provide healthcare to veterans.
“When people make it personal instead of about the policy, they take the attention away from legitimate veterans’ issues,” said Scott Davis, a well-known whistleblower and VA official in Atlanta.
