On Friday morning, Scott Pruitt slipped unannounced into the White House, where the Environmental Protection Agency chief has caused plenty of headaches and heartburn over the past week.
Long one of President Donald Trump’s most assertive and effusive Cabinet members, Pruitt has strained the patience and goodwill of top administration officials in recent days, as a drumbeat of stories about his lavish spending, questionable housing arrangements and personnel decisions have dominated the headlines.
Senior White House officials, including Chief of Staff John Kelly, have almost universally turned against Pruitt, according to White House aides. But Trump is hearing praise of Pruitt among allies and on conservative TV media, one senior administration official said, adding that Trump noted he did not see so much support for other embattled aides and Cabinet officials.
Despite the growing ethical questions involving Pruitt — his $50-a-night rental from a lobbyist last year, huge raises last month for two top advisers despite a lack of White House approval and reports that employees who questioned him were transferred or dismissed — the president has continued to back one of his most favored Cabinet members.
In an Oval Office meeting on Friday, during which the two men discussed the rollback of auto emissions standards, Trump was “very supportive” of Pruitt despite the wave of negative publicity, according to an administration official briefed on the exchange. Trump also took to Twitter, both to dismiss rumors that he was replacing Attorney General Jeff Sessions and to proclaim that Pruitt “is doing a great job but is TOTALLY under siege.”
Later in the day, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that while the administration is undertaking a “full review” of the various allegations against Pruitt, “The president feels that the administrator has done a good job at EPA. He has restored it back to its original purpose of protecting the environment and has gotten unnecessary regulations out of the way.”