Story updated at 1:40 p.m.
Former Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin doesn’t think President Trump is getting good advice.
“I think that he’s not being well served by all the people around him,” Shulkin told USA TODAY in an interview published Saturday. “As big of an organization as he needs to run, you need to have the right people around you with the right team, and, you know, we see with all the turnover and different things going on that are happening in the White House, that he’s still trying to figure that out.”
Shulkin didn’t name anyone in particular.
Shulkin left his post on Wednesday. Trump made the announcement on Twitter in the evening, adding that Navy Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson, who has served as White House physician for former Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, as well as Trump, would be nominated to replace Shulkin.
While Shulkin says he was fired, the White House claims he resigned.
“Secretary Shulkin resigned from his position as Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs,” White House spokeswoman Lindsey Walters told Politico.
In a New York Times op-ed the day after his departure, Shulkin blamed his ouster at the VA on Trump administration officials who want to privatize veterans’ healthcare, highlighting Washington’s “toxic” climate.
“The advocates within the administration for privatizing V.A. health services, however, reject this approach. They saw me as an obstacle to privatization who had to be removed,” Shulkin said. “That is because I am convinced that privatization is a political issue aimed at rewarding select people and companies with profits, even if it undermines care for veterans.”
Shulkin’s ouster was the latest maneuver in a high-level reshuffle of the Trump administration, which in recent weeks saw Secretary of State Rex Tillerson get fired — his last day is today — and H.R. McMaster being replaced by incoming national security adviser John Bolton.
