Tonight, Donald Trump made clear he doesn’t understand how bad Scott Pruitt is making him look, as he pedaled fantasies to minimize Pruitt’s humiliating scandals and appeared ignorant of Pruitt’s own efforts to defy Trump.
Trump seems to have missed the AP story that indicated Pruitt has spent $3 million on travel and security in just his first year. Pruitt’s security detail is three times as large as his predecessors, and he’s spent big on bringing security with him on personal vacations to places like the Rose Bowl and Disneyland. Meanwhile, the AP found no court cases charging anyone with threatening the EPA Administrator.
Perhaps the most embarrassing headline for Pruitt at the moment is that it turns out he’s being compared to the most attention craving pseudo-celebrity of the 90’s: Pruitt is the Kato Kaelin of DC. As it turns out, not only was Pruitt failing to pay his sweetheart $50 a night rent to his lobbyist landlord, but overstayed his welcome and the landlords changed the locks.
Scott Pruitt may have conned Donald Trump into believing he’s been a successful administrator, but the American people and the courts increasingly say otherwise. Already, Pruitt has retreated on one effort and six more of his attempts to scrap life-saving clean air and water standards have failed, while nearly every other faces legal action. Pruitt’s lazy approach even has conservatives concerned he’s “more interested in media attention than policy.”
Perhaps the best explanation for Scott Pruitt’s actions is that he wants “to be treated like he was the president.” That’s the quote, which came from David Schnare -- who is no environmentalist, as he’s a climate denier who worked under Trump and right-wing lawyer.
Perhaps Donald Trump is in fact the empty vessel Scott Pruitt said he is. That would explain how Pruitt so easily conned him.
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3 million members and supporters. In addition to helping people from all backgrounds explore nature and our outdoor heritage, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.