Today, the Health and Human Services Secretary, tom price, announced his resignation. This comes as the first sign of fallout from the administration's private plane scandal that is also affecting several other key figures. Price also becomes the most recent in a long list of people to have come and gone under President Trump.
Tom Price announces resigns
Tom Price's resignation today comes as he is being investigated by the department's inspector general for using private jets for a number of government business trips.
According to Politico, his use of charter and military jets for trips cost taxpayers almost $1 million dollars.
President Donald Trump was enraged by the scandal, as he stated before Price's resignation that “I was disappointed because I didn't like it, cosmetically or otherwise. I was disappointed.” Multiple sources told CNN that the President deemed Price's flights “stupid” during the week when talking to aides about it.
They also stated that Price's offer to reimburse the government only a partial amount of the costs of using the jets only ticked over Trump further. The President was also upset that it made him look bad, as the situation proved an optics nightmare against his “drain the swamp” motto.
It also gives fuel to his opponents, who had already accused his administration of being out of touch with average Americans.
Besides Price, EPA head Scott Pruitt, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin are some of the others involved in the private plane scandal. This week White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders Huckabee indicated that the White House was thinking about having greater oversight on agency travel.
Price only the latest to leave administration
However, Price is only the latest person in the eight months that Donald Trump has been President to have been fired, resign or quit. His FBI director (James Comey), Press Secretary (Sean Spicer), Chief Strategist (Steve Bannon) and Chief of Staff (Reince Priebus) are only someone of the notable names that have had to be replaced.
The “Los Angeles Times” actually has a chart of all of the key people who have left the Trump administration that shows the incredible amount of turnover in such a short time.
Yesterday, the White House announced that Don Wright would serve as the acting head of Health and Human Services. Since February he had been the acting assistant secretary for health at the department.