{"id":66974,"date":"2018-02-20T21:17:12","date_gmt":"2018-02-20T21:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/02\/20\/white-house-offers-faint-support-for-embattled-va-secretary-shulkin\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T12:56:56","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T12:56:56","slug":"white-house-offers-faint-support-for-embattled-va-secretary-shulkin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/veterans\/2018\/02\/20\/white-house-offers-faint-support-for-embattled-va-secretary-shulkin\/","title":{"rendered":"White House offers faint support for embattled VA Secretary Shulkin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 White House officials on Tuesday gave no indication of imminent action against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/veterans\/2018\/02\/18\/who-is-in-charge-at-the-department-of-veterans-affairs\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin<\/a>, but they also declined to give strong support to the embattled Cabinet official\u2019s work leading the department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shulkin has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/veterans\/2018\/02\/15\/amid-travel-scandal-shulkin-vows-to-root-out-division-within-va-leadership\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">under public scrutiny<\/a> for the past week, since the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/veterans\/2018\/02\/14\/report-blasts-va-secretary-for-improper-gifts-and-travel-lying-to-cover-up-scandal\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">release of an inspector general report<\/a> that found multiple ethics violations during his trip overseas to Denmark and London last summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The charges include improperly using taxpayers\u2019 funds to pay for his wife\u2019s travel, a top staffer altering emails to justify the expenses, accepting Wimbledon tickets as a gift from an English businesswoman, and lying about internal reviews concerning the trip afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shulkin has disputed the charges but also agreed to refund the costs of the trip and implement new ethics reviews at VA.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/veterans\/2018\/02\/18\/who-is-in-charge-at-the-department-of-veterans-affairs\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_8039.JPG.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Who is in charge at the Department of Veterans Affairs?<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Since a travel scandal broke on Wednesday, VA leadership has been embroiled in internal political fights that could result in the ousting of more top department leaders.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the days after the report was released, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/veterans\/2018\/02\/16\/va-chief-of-staff-resigns-amid-secretarys-travel-scandal\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">Shulkin\u2019s chief of staff resigned<\/a> and was replaced by a White House-backed official with promises that the change would mean \u201cthe department works closely with the White House going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The controversy has also made public a host of internal political fights within the department and White House, with numerous officials pushing for action against Shulkin in response to his policies on allowing more veterans to seek private-sector health care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Monday, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/veterans\/2018\/02\/19\/veterans-groups-rally-around-va-secretary-amid-rumors-of-looming-dismissal\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">a coalition of veterans groups rallied support for Shulkin<\/a>, saying that while the travel scandal was disappointing, replacing him for political reasons would be a disaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Tuesday, when asked if President Donald Trump still had faith in Shulkin, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said she had \u201cno reason to believe otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAs I\u2019ve said before, if someone no longer has the confidence of the president, you guys will know,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_0092.JPG.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-27396\" srcset=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_0092.JPG.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_0092.JPG.jpg?resize=300,225 300w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_0092.JPG.jpg?resize=768,576 768w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_0092.JPG.jpg?resize=1024,768 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Veterans Affairs motto displayed outside department headquarters is seen on Feb. 20, 2018. (Leo Shane III\/Staff)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When pressed on specifics of the travel scandal, Sanders said a secondary review of the IG report is already underway, and administration officials would not comment on the matter until it is complete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When that review will be finished is unclear. Shulkin has claimed that his former chief of staff\u2019s email was hacked during the initial IG investigation, and lawmakers have forwarded those claims to the Department of Justice for further review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An official VA statement on the matter released Friday, which makes no mention of Shulkin, said that department officials have opened an investigation into the allegations but \u201cthus far found no credible or conclusive evidence of a compromise to our email system or a user\u2019s account.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">White House officials have declined press inquiries on other questions about the ongoing power struggle or Shulkin\u2019s travels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When asked if the president still supports his top VA official, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said only that she had &#8220;no reason to believe otherwise.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":59566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":19,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,12,26,19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3222],"class_list":["post-66974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-news","category-newsletters","category-veterans"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"KS5WHKHM5BDMHE3RJVLQ5WZOPE","arc_canonical_url":"\/veterans\/2018\/02\/20\/white-house-offers-faint-support-for-embattled-va-secretary-shulkin\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>White House offers faint support for embattled VA Secretary Shulkin - Navy Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When asked if the president still supports his top VA official, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said only that she had &quot;no reason to believe otherwise.&quot;\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"White House offers faint support for embattled VA Secretary Shulkin\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When asked if the president still supports his top VA official, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said only that she had &quot;no 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