| | | | President Trump announced on Twitter Wednesday afternoon that he was firing Veterans Affairs secretary David Shulkin and plans to nominate Admiral Dr. Ronny Jackson to head the department. Shulkin is the third Trump Cabinet official to be fired. 
Shulkin had been dogged in recent weeks by revelations he had misspent taxpayer money on travel for himself and his wife—and then misled ethics investigators about the spending. A revolt among top aides at the department and poor performances explaining the travel in front of Congress made his position at the VA untenable. President Trump had been concerned over how reports about Shulkin undercut his campaign message to "drain the swamp" in Washington.
Before being confirmed as VA secretary, Shulkin had been under secretary for the department under President Obama—the only Trump Cabinet official to have served in the previous administration.
The White House did not respond to questions about when either Shulkin or Jackson were informed of the president's decisions. |
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| | Throwback Thursday—Last summer, at a White House event touting reforms coming to the troubled VA, President Trump expressed confidence in Shulkin and made reference to his famous "You're fired!" catchphrase from The Apprentice.
"We'll never have to use those words," Trump said, grinning at Shulkin. "We'll never have to use those words on our David."
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Throwback Thursday, Part II—Trump's new nominee, Ronny Jackson, is a Navy admiral who has served as the president's physician for nearly five years. Jackson appeared in January of this year at the White House press briefing to provide an update on President Trump's health. He reported the president's "overall health is excellent" and recommended he lose "10 to 15 pounds" over the next year.
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| | Mueller Watch—According to a New York Times report Wednesday, President Trump's former top lawyer dealing with the Russia probe suggested last year that Trump might pardon two former aides whom special counsel Robert Mueller is bringing charges against.
The Times reports attorney John Dowd, who resigned from Trump's legal team last week, raised the issue in conversations with lawyers for Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort while the special counsel was building cases against them last year. The White House denied the report Wednesday, with two of Trump's lawyers, Jay Sekulow and Ty Cobb, telling the Times they had never discussed potential pardons. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to expound on Cobb's statement during the White House briefing.
"I can say that Ty Cobb is the person that would be most directly involved in this, and he's got a statement on the record saying that there's no discussion and there's no consideration of those at this time at the White House," Sanders said. "As we've said pretty much every day since we got here—because you guys have continued to ask about this topic every single day—there was no collusion, and we're very confident in that, and look forward to this process wrapping up." | |
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| | Among the major technology companies, Facebook has been in the political crosshairs in recent days over questions of privacy and the abuse of user data. But according to a Wednesday report from Axios' Jonathan Swan, President Trump is far more concerned with another pillar of big tech: Amazon.
"Trump has talked about changing Amazon's tax treatment because he's worried about mom-and-pop retailers being put out of business. A source who's spoken to POTUS: 'He's wondered aloud if there may be any way to go after Amazon with antitrust or competition law.'"
Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to shed additional light on the story, which caused Amazon to hemorrhage about five percent of its market value Wednesday.
"We have no announcements and no specific policies or actions that we're currently pushing forward or considering taking," Sanders said. "The president has said many times before he's always looking to create a level playing field for all businesses, and this is no different. And he's going to always look at different ways, but there aren't any specific policies on the table at this time." | |
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On the President's Schedule—Trump heads to Cleveland Thursday for an event pitching his infrastructure plans. From there, the president will travel to Mar-a-Lago for the weekend.
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