President Trump on Wednesday fired Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin in the wake of an ethics scandal and a mounting rebellion within the agency. The president nominated White House doctor Ronny Jackson to lead the agency.
Jackson is a Navy rear admiral, a former Obama administration official and the first non-veteran ever to head Veterans Affairs. He has served since 2013 as the Physician to the President. The White House said Shulkin was informed of his dismissal by chief of staff John Kelly before the president announced the move on Twitter.
Shulkin was investigated over his travel and leadership.. He had agreed to reimburse the government more than $4,000 after the VA’s internal watchdog concluded last month that he had improperly accepted Wimbledon tennis tickets and that his then chief of staff had doctored emails to justify his wife’s traveling to Europe with him at taxpayer expenses.
President Trump has selected Robert Wilkie, the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, to serve as the acting head of the VA. The selection of Wilkie bypasses VA Deputy Secretary Tom Bowman, who has come under criticism or being too moderate to push Trump’s agenda of fixing veterans’ care.
