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." “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 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. 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. 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.
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.