At long last, Scott Pruitt is gone as head of the Environmental Protection Agency. He departed Thursday in true Pruitt style, portraying himself as the victim of a vicious slur campaign instead of acknowledging the long list of unethical and probably illegal actions that immersed him in controversy. Pruitt was the subject of no fewer than 13 federal inquiries or formal investigations.
The disrepute he repeatedly brought upon the Trump administration more than justified his dismissal long ago. But President Donald Trump kept Pruitt in place. There was even talk, ludicrous as it sounded, that Pruitt was encouraging Trump to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions so the EPA chief could take that job.
White House officials indicated that Trump was upset that those reports became public, even though he actually had considered the idea. Adding to the White House's anger were new allegations that Pruitt had retroactively altered his public schedule, an official document. That's a potential federal crime.
But that was just the latest of multiple infractions that made Pruitt the focus of so much controversy, nearly all self-inflicted. He used his staffers to conduct his personal business, including asking a senior aide to help find Pruitt's wife a job. He had a $43,000 phone booth installed in his office for super-secret communications. He hired an expensive security detail. He took his staff on a junket-style trip to Morocco. He accepted a sweetheart condominium-rental deal from the wife of a lobbyist who did business with the EPA. He billed taxpayers for multiple trips he took to his home in Oklahoma.
This list goes on and on. Any one of these should have been adequate grounds for Trump to declare that Pruitt was too much of a distraction and liability, yet the president stuck with him. It's doubtful Trump did it out of loyalty. Rather, the president has a massive ego, which has been severely bruised by the forced departures of four previous Cabinet members in addition to a long line of senior White House staffers. Trump needed to put distance between those previous embarrassments and Pruitt.
Trump has long claimed that his business success was rooted in his ability to follow his gut when deciding whether top aides had what it takes to do the job. But the trail of firings and forced departures suggests Trump should adopt a more systematic approach — perhaps one that actually involves stuff like, say, background checks.
Pruitt's departure doesn't mean big change is coming to the EPA. Far from it. The administration remains committed to dismantling the regulatory progress of Trump's predecessors and denying what the rest of the world already acknowledges: that humans need to drastically curtail the dangerous practices that are contributing global climate change. Even if Pruitt's theatrics are gone, the damaging policies at EPA will remain.
REPRINTED FROM THE ST LOUIS POST DISPATCH
View Comments