Scott Pruitt gets the “phone call of death” from Donald Trump
Over the weekend, Palmer Report pointed out that Donald Trump had set a dangerous precedent for himself when he fired David Shulkin from his cabinet to try to make the VA scandal go away, after having fired HHS Secretary Tom Price last year to try to make the travel scandal go away. It sent a clear signal that the Resistance can goad Trump into firing just about anyone, simply by playing up that person’s scandals. Sure enough, Trump made the proverbial “phone call of death” to embattled EPA boss Scott Pruitt today.
Trump called Pruitt today and assured him that everything is fine, according to a Politico report. Under different circumstances, this would be good news for Pruitt. But just a week ago, Trump called Shulkin and led him to believe that he was going to keep his job, only to have White House of Chief of Staff John Kelly fire Shulkin shortly after the phone call. In fact it’s widely believed that the phone call was set up so Trump could fire Shulkin, only for Trump to wimp out once they were on the line.
With that in mind, the odds are that today’s phone call was supposed to be so Trump could fire Pruitt, only for Trump to once again fail to find the intestinal fortitude to fire the guy directly. If so, it means John Kelly will have to step in yet again to inform Pruitt that Trump has fired him. Meanwhile, Pruitt has become so radioactive that there are even Republican calls for his ouster.
Republican Congresman Carlos Curbelo posted a tweet this afternoon calling for Scott Pruitt to resign, and failing that, for Donald Trump to fire him. It appears the GOP has figured out Trump’s propensity for sacrificing anyone who causes him too much trouble, and is looking to push him into dumping Pruitt. Just don’t expect Trump to be the one to tell Pruitt he’s been fired when the time comes.
