Donald Trump ousts David Shulkin as VA secretary

“WE’LL never have to use those words on our David" said Donald Trump last June. He was referring to his reality-television catchphrase, “You’re fired”, and David Shulkin, his secretary of veterans affairs. But on March 28th Mr Shulkin was fired, by tweet, and Mr Trump announced that Ronny Jackson (pictured), his personal doctor and a career naval officer, would succeed him. Mr Shulkin, the lone member of Barack Obama’s cabinet still in the job, had been in a precarious position since news emerged in February of a luxurious trip to Europe last year, taken on the taxpayer’s dime. The ensuing controversy revealed a VA department in a state of revolt. Staffers were disobeying Mr Shulkin’s direct orders and were, in his telling, scheming to subvert him. But veteran affairs groups, which exert an unusual degree of influence in Washington, DC, supported Mr Shulkin because they considered him a bulwark against the creeping privatisation of veterans’ health-care services (which are currently operated through a single purchaser which owns its...Continue reading

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