CLOSE President Donald Trump announced he will replace his Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin with Ronny Jackson, who currently is the president's physician USA TODAY

Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin arrives March 21, 2018, to testify on veterans programs on Capitol Hill. (Photo: Jose Luis Magana, AP)

WASHINGTON – Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin is being replaced, President Trump tweeted Wednesday, ending weeks of speculation and uncertainty about his fate.

Trump said he is nominating Navy Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson, official physician for the president and his predecessor, Barack Obama, to be the next VA secretary.

"I am thankful for Dr. David Shulkin's service to our country and to our great VETERANS!" the president tweeted.

He said Robert Wilkie, an undersecretary at the Pentagon, will take over the agency as acting secretary.

Shulkin had been locked for months in a power struggle with a group of Trump political appointees among his senior staff.

Shulkin had pledged the VA would not be privatized on his watch but would provide veterans expanded opportunities to get private sector care. The Trump appointees want a more comprehensive overhaul and to give veterans more access to VA-funded care in the private sector.

Trump had praised the Cabinet secretary several weeks ago for doing a “great” and “incredible” job leading the charge to fulfill his pledges to improve the VA.

More: White House departures: Who's been fired and who resigned

Shulkin himself provided the critical opening that led to his downfall. After touting Trump's campaign pledges to increase accountability at the VA, he balked at the results of an investigation released last month that found he and his staff committed ethics violations in planning and taking a European trip last year.

He blasted the VA inspector general’s findings that he improperly accepted Wimbledon tickets and airfare for his wife during the 10-day junket. He refused to accept the determination that his chief of staff misled ethics officials to get clearance for his wife's airfare, suggesting that her email had been hacked. Shulkin later expressed regret and repaid the cost of the tickets and airfare. He also complained that the appointees were targeting and undermining him.

His response left many lawmakers, veterans groups and others who might have come to his defense in a tough spot, and they remained largely silent for days after the investigation report's release Feb. 14. By the time they did speak out, it may have been too late.

Two days after the report's release, the White House unilaterally installed a new VA chief of staff, Peter O’Rourke, who was a member of Trump’s transition team and an ally of the Trump appointees. VA spokesman Curt Cashour said “additional personnel accountability actions” were possible.

The White House never removed that cloud over Shulkin's future. Spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said that Trump supported the work Shulkin did as secretary but that the situation was "under review."

Shulkin made it roughly 13 months in Trump's Cabinet. He was appointed by Obama as undersecretary for health at the VA in July 2015.

During his tenure, he directed increased transparency efforts, including a new website revealing wait times for VA care and quality comparisons to the private sector. Shulkin upped accountability efforts, swiftly removing hospital directors when problems with care were revealed, including in Manchester, N.H., and Washington. He set up a data-tracking center at headquarters in an effort to intervene before problems became crises.

He fulfilled some of Trump's campaign promises on veterans' issues, overseeing the creation of a 24-hour White House hotline for veteran complaints and an Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Office, which drew praise for its early efforts.

Shulkin ordered the rewriting of decades-old policies on hiring and reporting poor medical care providers to authorities after USA TODAY revealed massive lapses in hiring guidelines and in reporting substandard practitioners to state licensing boards and a national database created to stop them from crossing state lines to escape their pasts and potentially harm other patients.

Shulkin had been working with Congress to pass landmark legislation that would expand — if moderately — veterans' access to private sector care, and the measure was poised to pass the Senate before the power struggle between Shulkin and Trump appointees erupted into public view.

He ordered plans for the largest restructuring of the VA in more than 20 years after the VA inspector general uncovered failures at the Washington VA medical center that had festered for years under VA officials at local, regional and national levels who knew about them but didn't fix them.

The fate of the legislation and reorganization after Shulkin’s departure is uncertain.

The chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., said he thinks Shulkin did a "fantastic job, and I hate to see him go.

"That said, I respect President Trump’s decision, support the president’s agenda and remain willing to work with anyone committed to doing the right thing on behalf of our nation’s veterans," Roe said. “I am in the process of reaching out to Dr. Jackson, and I look forward to building a strong relationship with him also.”

More: VA Secretary David Shulkin ousts three execs, consolidates oversight of 23 hospitals

More: VA Secretary David Shulkin says he learned 'lots of lessons’ from handling of travel report

Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2Gih81W</s>WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Just two days after the White House said President Donald Trump has confidence in Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin, the president revealed he is replacing the head of the department responsible for providing vital services to America's veterans.



Trump announced in a post on Twitter on Wednesday that he intends to nominate White House physician Ronny Jackson to replace Shulkin.



'I am pleased to announce that I intend to nominate highly respected Admiral Ronny L. Jackson, MD, as the new Secretary of Veterans Affairs,' Trump tweeted.



He added, 'I am thankful for Dr. David Shulkin's service to our country and to our GREAT VETERANS!'



Trump also said Robert Wilkie, currently Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, will serve as acting VA Secretary.



Jackson made headlines earlier this year when he held a press conference declaring Trump in 'very, very good health.'



Earlier this week, multiple news sources suggested Shulkin could be the latest member of Trump's administration to be ousted, but the White House downplayed the reports.



'We hear these types of rumors every day,' White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley told Fox News on Monday. 'At this point in time, though, [Trump] does have confidence in Dr. Shulkin.'



'He is a secretary and he has done some great things at the VA,' Gidley added. 'As you know, the president wants to put the right people in the right place at the right time and that could change.'



The comments from Gidley came as reports indicated Shulkin could be fired amid disputes with VA staffers and government investigations of alleged spending abuses.



Shulkin joins other recently departed White House officials, including chief economic adviser Gary Cohn, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster.



White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders denied reports McMaster was being removed less than a week before Trump revealed he is being replaced by former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX</s>WASHINGTON (AP) - With a handshake and a presidential kiss on the cheek, Hope Hicks bid farewell to the White House, the press-shy communications director taking a rare moment in the spotlight on her final day in Donald Trump's administration.

The Thursday exit of the president's most trusted aide, coming one day after yet another Cabinet departure, highlights continuing uncertainty among Trump aides and White House staff about who might be the next to go.

Hicks departed the administration on her own terms and was given a gracious goodbye by Trump outside the Oval Office in view of reporters. That stands in stark contrast to the White House treatment of David Shulkin, the Veterans Affairs secretary who was fired amid ethics questions and replaced by a White House physician who has no experience running a bureaucracy or working with veterans.

As Trump allies defended the choice of Navy Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson, scrutiny quickly shifted to a number of other Cabinet members facing ethics questions and with strained relationships with the president, as well as a White House chief of staff who has found his influence diminished. Trump aides and outside advisers suggested that other changes weren't imminent, but no one could say how long that would last.

"I'll have to get back to you on that," said deputy press secretary Lindsay Walters when asked on Air Force One if Trump now had his ideal Cabinet.

White House officials are apprehensive about Hicks' departure, given her unrivaled position in the president's orbit. Despite her title as communications director title, Hicks was more accurately described by White House officials as Trump's right-hand-woman and media gatekeeper, providing needed doses of affirmation to the president and able to deliver bad news to him with few repercussions.

The internal jockeying to replace her - if Trump even chooses to do so - has featured backstabbing and planted news stories that, in turn, bash the leading candidates: Mercedes Schlapp, the White House strategic communications director, and Tony Sayegh, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Treasury Department.

Many close to the White House, however, expect senior adviser Kellyanne Conway or press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to assume the role, at least temporarily. Sanders has grown close to the president since taking over the press secretary's job after the resignation of Sean Spicer last summer - and has been spending more time in the Oval Office lately.

The job of communications director - which involves developing and executing the administration's long-term messaging strategy - has never been a particularly important one to the president. Aides joke he is his own communications director, who upends carefully laid plans with a tweet or digression.

Trump, never disciplined, has taken to freelancing more of late, as he moves to surround himself with aides less likely to try to rein him in. A speech outside Cleveland on Thursday meant to be about infrastructure instead felt like a campaign rally. And he has broken free of more of the restraints placed upon him by chief of staff John Kelly.

Trump hired John Bolton as national security adviser last week over Kelly's objections and didn't include his chief of staff in the Oval Office meeting in which the job offer was extended. And Kelly, who frequently listens in on the president's calls, was not on the call Trump made from the White House residence earlier this month during which, over staff objections, he congratulated Russian President Vladimir Putin on his re-election.

Though Kelly's job did not appear to be in danger, Trump has mused to outside allies of late about setting a West Wing structure with no chief of staff, reminiscent of his Trump Tower operation.

Aides said controversies around Trump's staff need to hit a certain decibel level to get the president's attention.

In the case of Shulkin, who was found to have inappropriately accepted gifts and travel, his parting came as he was under fire from all corners, including GOP-leaning veterans groups and good-government watchdogs. And Trump himself vented to confidants that the questions surrounding Shulkin undermined his campaign promise to help veterans, according to three White House officials and outside advisers who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.

Officials said ethical questions swirling around other Cabinet members are not attracting the attention of the president in the same manner but caution that could change quickly.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson came under scrutiny after reports his agency was spending $31,000 for a new dining set. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt has faced questions about $25,000 spent on a soundproof "privacy booth" inside his office to prevent eavesdropping on his phone calls and another $9,000 on biometric locks.

White House ethics officials, directed by Kelly, have warned Carson, Pruitt and others that further negative attention could change the dynamic and send them packing. But another Cabinet member, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, may have inadvertently stepped into Trump's line of fire this week.

Trump has been livid at Sessions for months for recusing himself from the Russia investigation, belittling him publicly and privately but not yet moving to dismiss him. But Sessions on Thursday appeared on the cover of Time magazine, Trump's favorite publication.

Trump has been known to boast about his appearances on Time covers - fake ones have been installed at his golf courses - and was angry last year when former chief strategist Steve Bannon appeared on one. One Trump ally said the president has previously said, only half-jokingly, that he should appear on the cover every week.

Lemire reported from New York. Associated Press writer Jill Colvin contributed to this report.

Follow Lemire on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@JonLemire and Miller at http://twitter.com/@zekejmiller</s>Washington, Mar 28 (EFE).- President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he will nominate his White House physician, Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson, to head the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), replacing current VA Secretary David Shulkin, whose reputation has been tarnished because of several scandals.



“I am pleased to announce that I intend to nominate highly respected Admiral Ronny L. Jackson, MD, as the new Secretary of Veterans Affairs….” Trump said on his Twitter account.



Until the Senate can vote on confirming Jackson, a top Pentagon official – Robert Wilkie – will head the agency on an interim basis, Trump said.



“I am thankful for Dr. David Shulkin’s service to our country and to our GREAT VETERANS!” the president added in a pair of tweets.



Jackson is known for the press conference he held last January after Trump underwent a medical exam, saying that the president was in “excellent” health, “has incredibly good genes” and is fully able to carry out the duties of president.



Shulkin’s departure from the VA had been rumored for weeks because he had generated headlines over his ethical conflicts last July, when he took advantage of an official trip to Europe to attend the tennis tournament at Wimbledon in the United Kingdom.



On that visit, Shulkin accepted some tickets to the tourney even though their value exceeded the limit established by the administration regarding gifts to public officials, and last September he pressured the White House so that his wife could accompany him – at government expense, although he paid for her trip when the ethical issue became public – to the Invictus Games in Toronto.



Regarding the 50-year-old Jackson, Trump said in a statement that he is “highly trained and qualified and as a service member himself, he has seen firsthand the tremendous sacrifice our veterans make and has a deep appreciation for the debt our great country owes them.”



Jackson has been the White House physician for three US presidents – George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Trump – and in 2005, before beginning his tenure at the presidential residence – he was deployed to Iraq as an emergency combat physician.



To date, Wilkie was undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, in which capacity he worked on issues linked to the healthcare and quality of life for military families.



The ouster of Shulkin comes as one of a series of recent cabinet changes by Trump, who in March has nominated a new secretary of state (Mike Pompeo), a new CIA director (Gina Haspel) and a new national security adviser (John Bolton).</s>President Donald Trump announced Wednesday he will replace his Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin with Ronny Jackson, who currently serves as physician to the President.

Trump thanked Shulkin via Twitter for his “service to our country and to our GREAT VETERANS” and said Robert Wilkie, the under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, will serve as acting secretary until Jackson is confirmed.

Jackson, who is an active duty Navy physician, was nominated last week for a military promotion by the President.

Shulkin’s departure from the administration is a stark reversal of fortunes for the VA leader, who served as undersecretary of health in the Obama administration. He’d been held in high regard by Trump, who publicly praised him and touted a series of legislative wins regarding veterans issues.

Trump even joked last year that his signature phrase, “you’re fired” would never be used with Shulkin.

“We’ll never have to use those words on our David. We will never use those words on you. That’s for sure,” Trump said of Shulkin last June.

Things soured early this year as Shulkin was the subject of a damning report from the department’s inspector general that found “serious derelections” by Shulkin and senior VA officials on a Europe trip last year, and concluded that Shulkin had spent a good deal of the trip sightseeing and had inappropriately accepted a gift of Wimbledon tickets.

The report fueled Shulkin’s critics, both within his own agency and outside it, and brought into the open the power struggle over how to best care for the nation’s veterans. Expanding private health care for veterans was a talking point of Trump’s on the campaign trail, and a White House priority, and Shulkin’s critics have said he was a roadblock to achieving that goal.

As the year went on, Shulkin grew increasingly isolated and at odds with top aides, including those in charge of VA communications efforts, was so wide that the secretary had recently been conducting his own crisis communications effort via his personal cell phone, telling reporters that there were political staffers working to oust him.

Shulkin’s public comments rubbed White House officials, including chief of staff John Kelly, the wrong way. That frustration reached the White House recently, with Trump reportedly floating the idea in private of replacing Shulkin with Energy Secretary Rick Perry.

His efforts to turn around the troubled VA were met with acclaim last year. However, over the last few months his standing with the White House grew more dubious, with political appointees saying that he wasn’t going far enough to advance the Trump administration’s goal of moving more care into the private sector.

The inspector general’s report also damaged Shulkin’s standing, though he remained widely popular on Capitol Hill and retained the support of many of the nation’s major veterans organizations.

The leaders of some of those groups publicly implored Trump to keep Shulkin on board at VA, saying they were concerned a potential replacement could be inexperienced or in favor of privatizing healthcare for the nation’s veterans.</s>Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin has left his role as of Wednesday evening, and President Donald Trump announced he’s nominating Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson for the position.

“I am pleased to announce that I intend to nominate highly respected Admiral Ronny L. Jackson, MD, as the new Secretary of Veterans Affairs,” Trump tweeted Wednesday evening. “In the interim, Hon. Robert Wilkie of DOD will serve as Acting Secretary. I am thankful for Dr. David Shulkin’s service to our country and to our GREAT VETERANS!”

It’s unclear whether Shulkin resigned or was fired. However, Nevada Democratic Rep. Dina Titus tweeted Monday evening that she had just spoken to Shulkin an hour before the announcement that Trump was nominating a new VA secretary, suggesting Shulkin may have been fired.

I was just on the phone with Secretary #Shulkin in the last hour discussing @DeptVetAffairs’ move to end #DogTesting at the #VA, and there was no hint that he was about to be fired. I thank him for his years of service to our nation’s veterans,” she tweeted.

Shulkin, a holdover from the Obama administration, came under fire in February after an inspector general found that he improperly used taxpayer funds for his wife to accompany him on a 10-day European trip. He had become so embattled in recent weeks that he reportedly kept an armed guard outside his office.

Shulkin is now the third Cabinet official to leave the Trump administration, following Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price in September and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson earlier this month.

Over the past few months, a number of other top senior aides have also left the White House in what’s been a chaotic start to 2018 for the government’s executive branch.

Initially, it seemed like Trump was going to nominate Fox and Friends co-host Pete Hegseth to take over Shulkin’s role. Hegseth, an Iraq War veteran who wants to privatize the VA health care system, would have had a tough road to confirmation.

Instead, Trump chose Jackson, who has served as the White House physician for the past three presidential administrations of Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and now Trump.

Wilkie, who is serving as interim until a permanent secretary is confirmed, currently serves as under secretary of Defense for personnel and readiness.

March 28, 2018, 6:53 p.m.: This story has been updated.</s>Washington: President Donald Trump said he will replace veterans affairs secretary David Shulkin with Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson, the presidential physician, in the latest administration shakeup.

Shulkin’s ouster comes amid a wave of resignations and dismissals in the Trump team’s senior ranks, following the departures of economic adviser Gary Cohn, national security adviser HR McMaster and secretary of state Rex Tillerson, all announced this month.

Shulkin, 58, a doctor and former hospital administrator, took office in February 2017 following a unanimous vote by the Senate. He was the sole holdover in the cabinet from the Obama administration. He served as undersecretary for health overseeing medical facilities run by the VA, which provides care for more than 9 million enrolled veterans.

Shulkin had been under fire for a European trip that included a tennis outing at Wimbledon, accounts of troubling conditions at medical facilities, reports of tension with his senior staff, and friction over plans to shift care to the private sector.

“I am pleased to announce that I intend to nominate highly respected Admiral Ronny L. Jackson, MD, as the new secretary of veterans affairs,” Trump said. “I am thankful for Dr. David Shulkin’s service to our country and to our GREAT VETERANS!”

Jackson, a naval officer, has been a White House physician since George W. Bush’s presidency. His nomination will require Senate approval. He conducted Trump’s first official medical exam as president in January and declared Trump “fit for duty.”

Questions about Trump’s fitness for office had flared at the time after a book — “Fire and Fury” by Michael Wolff — asserted that many of Trump’s senior aides thought the president mentally unwell. Jackson reported that a screening of the president’s cognitive function, designed to check for signs of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, was normal.

Trump likes Jackson, whom Shulkin had recommended an undersecretary post at the VA last fall, according to a White House official, who added that the president realized he had a deep command of veterans issues.

Another advantage for Jackson: He has a very high security clearance because of his regular proximity to the president and his access to Trump’s full health history, said two people familiar with the matter. Anyone named as head of the department of veterans affairs would be required to have that kind of clearance. Jackson also has the tremendous responsibility of safeguarding the health of the commander in chief.

All three people requested anonymity to discuss administration deliberations.

Shulkin came into office with a pledge to bring greater accountability to the agency and to improve veterans’ access to care, and not to privatize the department.

In July 2017, he travelled to Denmark and England with senior Veterans Administration officials, his wife, and a six-member security detail, according to a February report by the agency’s inspector general. The 11-day trip included three and a half days of official events and cost at least $122,334, the report said. It found that Shulkin improperly accepted two tickets to the ladies’ final match at Wimbledon.

Shulkin told lawmakers that he regretted decisions “that have been made that have taken the focus off” the VA’s work, and said he would reimburse costs as recommended by the inspector general, who called for repayments for the Wimbledon tickets and the airfare for the secretary’s wife.

Shulkin’s trip was among several involving top Trump administration officials to draw notice. Environmental protection agency administrator Scott Pruitt relied on first-class flights, racking up a $1,641.43 bill for a trip between Washington and New York, and Health and human services secretary Tom Price stepped down over flights with a total cost that exceeded $1 million.

The report of Shulkin’s travel stoked tensions within the agency, and he reduced contacts with Trump’s political appointees and installed an armed guard outside his office, according to a 9 March report in the Washington Post. The discord centers around plans to direct more spending on veterans’ care to private facilities than Shulkin favours, according to a 16 February ProPublica report.

On 7 March, the VA inspector general released a report that said “failures in leadership” led to critical deficiencies at the agency’s Washington medical center, where inventories weren’t properly maintained and patient records weren’t securely stored. At times, doctors had to borrow supplies from a nearby hospital, according to the report. Shulkin told interviewers he didn’t recall senior officials bringing the center’s problems to his attention when he was undersecretary overseeing medical facilities, according to the report.

Asked about the report, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders on 7 March said Shulkin “has done a great job.”

Robert Wilkie, currently the undersecretary of for personnel and readiness at the defence department, will serve as acting secretary for Veterans Affairs while Jackson awaits Senate confirmation, Trump said. Bloomberg</s>President Donald Trump fired Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin on Wednesday and nominated White House doctor Ronny Jackson to replace him in the wake of a bruising ethics scandal and a mounting rebellion within the agency. A Navy rear admiral, Jackson is a surprise choice to succeed Shulkin, a former Obama administration official and the first non-veteran ever to head the VA. Trump had been considering replacements for Shulkin for weeks, but had not been known to be considering Jackson for the role.

In a statement, Trump praised Jackson as “highly trained and qualified.” It was a decision that signaled Trump chose to go with someone he knows and trusts, rather than the candidate with the longest resume, to run a massive agency facing huge bureaucratic challenges. Jackson has served since 2013 as the physician to the president, one of the people in closest proximity to Trump day in and day out. His profile rose after he conducted a sweeping press conference about the president’s medical exam in January in which he impressed Trump with his camera-ready demeanor and deft navigation of reporters’ questions as he delivered a rosy depiction of the president’s health, according to a person familiar with the president’s thinking but not authorized to discuss private conversations.

Jackson eagerly embraced the idea of moving to the VA, according to a White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters. Ironically, it was Shulkin who had recommended Jackson for an undersecretary position at the agency in fall. Jackson was vetted during that time on his policy positions and other issues, the official said. The promotion of Jackson marks the latest Trump hire to be driven at least as much by personal familiarity with the president as by his vision for the role.

Brigadier General Dr. Richard Tubb, who trained Jackson, said in a letter read at Jackson’s briefing that the doctor had been attached like “Velcro” to Trump since Inauguration Day. “On any given day,” he wrote,”the ‘physician’s office,’ as it is known, is generally the first and last to see the President.” A White House official said Shulkin was informed of his dismissal by Chief of Staff John Kelly before the president announced the move on Twitter on Wednesday afternoon.

Trump had considered several others for the post, including conservative “Fox & Friends” contributor Pete Hegseth. The White House was hopeful Jackson will have a smoother confirmation process because he was chosen for his current position during former President Barack Obama’s administration. But a major veterans’ organization expressed concern over Shulkin’s dismissal and Trump’s intention to nominate Jackson, whom they worried lacked experience to run the huge department.

“We are disappointed and already quite concerned about this nominee,” said Joe Chenelly, the national executive director of AMVETS. “The administration needs to be ready to prove that he’s qualified to run such a massive agency, a $200 billion bureaucracy.” Rep. Phil Roe, chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said he believed Shulkin did a “fantastic job” and didn’t think he should have been dismissed, but “at the end of the day, cabinet secretaries serve at the pleasure of the president.”

“I respect President Trump’s decision, support the president’s agenda and remain willing to work with anyone committed to doing the right thing on behalf of our nation’s veterans,” Roe said. “I am in the process of reaching out to Dr. Jackson and I look forward to building a strong relationship with him also.” Shulkin is the second Cabinet secretary to depart over controversies involving expensive travel, following former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price’s resignation last September. Trump said in a statement he is “grateful” for Shulkin’s service.

Shulkin had continued to insist he had the full confidence of the White House amid continuing investigations into his travel and leadership of the department. 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 traveling to Europe with him at taxpayer expense. Shulkin also blamed internal drama at the agency on a half-dozen or so rebellious political appointees, insisting he had White House backing to fire them.

But the continuing VA infighting and a fresh raft of watchdog reports documenting leadership failures and spending waste — as well as fresh allegations that Shulkin had used a member of his security detail to run personal errands — proved too much of a distraction. It was the latest in a series of departures of top administration officials, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was fired by Trump earlier this month, and national security adviser H.R. McMaster, whose departure was announced last week.

The VA change comes as Trump is trying to expand the Veterans Choice program, fulfilling a campaign promise that major veterans’ groups worry could be an unwanted step toward privatizing VA health care. His plan remains in limbo in Congress after lawmakers declined last week to include it in a spending bill. Having pushed through legislation in Trump’s first year making it easier to fire bad VA employees and speed disability appeals, Shulkin leaves behind a department in disarray. Several projects remain unfinished, including a multibillion-dollar overhaul of electronic medical records aimed at speeding up wait times for veterans seeking medical care as well as expanded mental health treatment for veterans at higher risk of suicide.

Trump selected Robert Wilkie, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, to serve as the acting head of the VA. The VA is government’s second-largest department, responsible for 9 million military veterans in more than 1,700 government-run health facilities. The selection of Wilkie bypasses VA Deputy Secretary Tom Bowman, who has come under criticism for being too moderate to push Trump’s agenda of fixing veterans’ care.

During the presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly pledged to fix the VA, which was still reeling after a 2014 scandal at its Phoenix medical center, where veterans waited months for care even as VA employees created secret waiting lists to cover up delays. Criticizing the department as “the most corrupt,” Trump said he would bring accountability and expand access to private doctors, promising to triple the number of veterans “seeing the doctor of their choice.” Currently, more than 30 percent of VA appointments are made in the private sector.

For all the latest World News, download Indian Express App</s>US military veterans have expressed their "disappointment and concern" over Donald Trump's decision to put his personal doctor in charge of the White House agency responsible for their healthcare.

The President announced yet another change to his staff via Twitter on Wednesday, nominating his physician Dr Ronny Jackson as Veterans Affairs Secretary, after firing David Shulkin.

Dr Jackson - a navy rear admiral who gave Mr Trump a glowing medical assessment earlier this year - is the first non-veteran to head the department, which is facing huge scrutiny in the wake of a damaging ethics scandal.

His predecessor had been the subject of investigations regarding his leadership, as well as making expensive trips abroad with his wife at the expense of the taxpayer.

And he leaves with a multi-billion dollar overhaul of the department's medical records system in limbo.

But Joe Chenelly, national executive director of the major veterans' association AMVETS, has publicly doubted whether his replacement is up to the task.

"We are disappointed and already quite concerned about this nominee," he said.

"The administration needs to be ready to prove that he's qualified to run such a massive agency, a $200bn bureaucracy."

Mr Trump has insisted Dr Jackson - who was also Barack Obama's physician from 2013 - is "highly trained and qualified" for the role, with the President reportedly left impressed by his performance at the press conference in which he revealed the results of his medical.

He had also been recommended for an undersecretary position at the agency late last year by Mr Shulkin himself.

The switch comes as Mr Trump attempts to fulfil several campaign promises related to Veterans Affairs - the second largest department in the government, responsible for nine million former servicemen across 1,700 state health facilities.

On the campaign trail he blasted it as "corrupt" in relation to a 2014 scandal at Phoenix Medical Centre, in which veterans were made to wait months for care, with secret waiting lists used to cover up delays.

Mr Trump said he would bring accountability to the department and expand access to private doctors, which veterans' groups have argued could be an unwelcome step towards privatising all of their healthcare.

The departure of Mr Shulkin is the latest in an increasingly long line of changes at the top level of the Trump administration, with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson having been fired earlier this month and national security adviser HR McMaster replaced by John Bolton just last week.

Robert Wilkie, undersecretary of defence for personnel and readiness, will be the acting head of Veterans Affairs until Dr Jackson's nomination is approved.</s>WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump is firing Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin and replacing him with the White House doctor in the wake of a bruising ethics scandal and a mounting rebellion within the VA.

 

Trump tweets that he intends to nominate "highly respected Admiral Ronny L. Jackson, MD, as the new Secretary of Veterans Affairs."

 

Trump says Robert Wilkie, an undersecretary at the Defense Department, will serve as acting VA secretary until Jackson is confirmed.

 

Shulkin is the second Cabinet secretary to depart over controversies involving expensive travel, following former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price's resignation last September.

 

Trump says he is "thankful for Dr. David Shulkin's service to our country and to our GREAT VETERANS!"
U.S. President Donald Trump announces that he is replacing David Shulkin as Secretary of Veterans Affairs and will nominate Ronny Jackson, who is currently the President's Physician, to fill the position.