President Trump is “souring” on EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, sources close to the White House told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday, amid the latest deluge of negative headlines about Pruitt’s conduct at the agency.
The current EPA chief has survived months of criticism from bipartisan lawmakers and allies of the administration because of Trump’s belief that he has been exceedingly effective in his role. Despite facing more than a dozen open investigations into various expenditures, trips, and salary increases he’s approved, among other issues, Pruitt has yet to face pressure from the president to resign or be fired.
But new reporting this week about two requests Pruitt made to his staff has caused Trump to reconsider his hands-off approach and left White House staffers fuming, according to one source familiar with the situation.
[Related: Teacher confronts Scott Pruitt, urges him to ‘resign before your scandals push you out’]
Pruitt, who told congressional investigators in April he has “nothing to hide,” ordered aides to amend his official calendar numerous times to hide meetings from the public that could be perceived as controversial, CNN reported Tuesday. The network had first noticed discrepancies between Pruitt’s calendar and other records, and was later told by former EPA official Kevin Chmielewski that Pruitt’s staff regularly convened in the administrator’s office to “scrub” records.
“We had at one point three different schedules. One of them was one that no one else saw except three or four of us,” Chmielewski said.
A separate report this week by the Washington Post claimed Pruitt once asked a subordinate to look into potential jobs for his wife that would meet a minimum annual salary threshold of $200,000. The aide reportedly declined to follow through on the request.
“Stuff just keeps on coming out,” a source close to the White House told the Washington Examiner.
This person said Pruitt has been called in to the West Wing for “multiple meetings” about his ethical dilemmas, and that those involved in such discussions, including chief of staff John Kelly, have grown increasingly frustrated with what appears to be a persistent problem.
“The president is finally souring on him,” the source said.
White House spokesman Hogan Gidley told reporters aboard Air Force One Tuesday evening that the latest reports about Pruitt are being reviewed by Trump.
“We are aware of the numerous reports and the president is looking into those, but we don’t have any announcement to make,” Gidley said, adding that while there is “no timeline” for a decision regarding his position, “obviously the reports are troublesome.”
Pruitt has previously been faulted for demanding that midlevel EPA employees carry out bizarre tasks unrelated to his official capacity, including purchasing a used mattress from Trump International Hotel in Washington, hunting for a particular kind of lotion, and inquiring about a Chick-fil-A franchise opportunity for his wife.
“Sometimes people get tripped up on other things besides the core mission, and I think that’s what you’re seeing,” Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said of Pruitt last month.
Others haven’t been so forgiving.
“I’m not going to come down here, just because he happens to be a nominee of a president I support … and try to defend the indefensible,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told Politico in June, adding that Pruitt should have “learned his lesson” the first time he drew scrutiny for his behavior.
