Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price’s office has insisted he did nothing wrong by repeatedly chartering private planes, including on a brief jaunt to Philadelphia, less than 140 miles from Washington.
His boss just issued a very different verdict.
While talking to reporters Wednesday afternoon at the White House, President Trump said he was “not happy” with Price.
“I will tell you, personally, I’m not happy about it,” Trump said. “I’m not happy about it, and I let him know about it.” Asked whether he might fire Price, Trump gave his usual noncommittal response: “We’ll see.”
It seems Price has given up his private planes for the underside of a bus.
Trump’s very public rebuke of a top adviser is hardly unprecedented, but his ire over Price’s flights is new. When asked about the same issue Sunday, Trump didn’t seem to have the first clue about it. Asked about private travel by Price, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s alleged misuse of government planes, Trump alternately disputed the details and said he didn’t “know much about it. I haven’t heard about it.”
But whether Trump set out to send a message to Price or not, his response Wednesday will reverberate. That’s because travel issues haven’t just been dogging Price, but also Mnuchin and, most recently, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt. CBS reported Tuesday that Pruitt is being scrutinized for using an Air Force jet, for flying to Italy three days before a summit he was due to attend, and for frequent trips back to his home state of Oklahoma.
Inspectors general at all three agencies are looking at these travels, and the House Oversight Committee just sent a letter indicating that it’s on the case, too. And now Trump has taken something of a position on the appropriateness of such practices. At this point, Price’s objectionable travels appear much more extensive — Politico reported Tuesday night that he also used private jets to travel to two locations where he owns property, mixing personal and official business in both cases — but Trump just breathed life into the idea that this kind of thing is not okay, even as new details are rolling in.
#Breaking: Chairman Gowdy and Rep. Cummings to examine senior government official's use of private aircrafts for official travel.
⬇️ pic.twitter.com/M6nIe3hzF7— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) September 27, 2017
(Also caught up in this: Top White House aide Kellyanne Conway, who traveled with Price on the Philadelphia flight. So is Trump also “not happy” with her?)
In the case of Price, it seems possible Trump was unhappy not just about private travel, but also about the recently failed health-care bill. Back in July during an event in West Virginia, Trump told Price that he needed to deliver the health-care votes “or you’re fired.” (It seemed to be a joke, but with Trump you never know.) Trump hasn’t been shy about criticizing those he feels failed him on health care — including Sens. Mitch McConnell, John McCain and Rand Paul — so it would be no surprise that he was privately fuming at Price as well.
As always with Trump, there is no such thing as reciprocal loyalty, and being a top adviser or Cabinet official doesn’t exempt you from public humiliations and undercutting. Ask Jeff Sessions, Chris Christie, Stephen K. Bannon, Reince Priebus and Sean Spicer.
I’ve said the Trump administration is “where your pride goes to die.” Trump just told Price what he thinks of Price’s pride, but in doing so, he lent legitimacy to a growing controversy within his own administration. And Trump didn’t throw Price under the bus out of necessity; he basically conjured the bus himself solely for the purpose of tossing Price beneath it.
