Washington • Former Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin is blaming his sudden ouster from the Trump administration on “political forces” that he says are bent on privatizing the agency and putting “companies with profits” over the care of veterans.
Shulkin, the lone Obama administration holdover serving in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, blasted a “toxic” and “subversive” environment in Washington that made it impossible for him to lead. In a tweet late Wednesday, President Donald Trump fired Shulkin, who faced a mounting internal rebellion at VA and a bruising ethics scandal.
“There are many political appointees in the VA that believe that we are moving in the wrong direction or weren’t moving fast enough towards privatizing the VA,” he wrote in an op-ed published Thursday in The New York Times.