Health Secretary Tom Price Resigns After Drawing Ire for Chartered Flights
The statement issued by the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said simply
that Mr. Price had “offered his resignation earlier today and the president accepted.”
Mr. Trump tapped Don J. Wright, a deputy assistant secretary for health
and the director of the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, to serve as acting secretary.
WASHINGTON — Tom Price, the health and human services secretary, resigned under pressure on Friday after racking up at least $400,000 in travel bills for chartered flights
and undermining President Trump’s promise to drain the swamp of a corrupt and entitled capital.
The Small Business Administration said its chief, Linda McMahon, has used both commercial and private air services and
that “on the rare occasion that the administrator has used private air services, she had covered the entire cost out of her own pocket.” Betsy DeVos, the education secretary, travels on personally owned aircraft “at zero cost to U. S. taxpayers” because she “neither seeks, nor accepts, any reimbursement,” the department said.
“While his resignation ends his time in the government, it does not end the private jet scandal
that others in the Trump administration, including Mnuchin, Pruitt and Zinke, find themselves in,” Noah Bookbinder, the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, an advocacy group, said in a statement.
Tom Price sent a letter on Friday to President Trump resigning as health secretary.
Already in trouble with Mr. Trump for months of unsuccessful efforts to repeal
and replace President Barack Obama’s health care program, Mr. Price failed to defuse the president’s anger over his high-priced travel by agreeing to pay a portion of the cost and expressing “regret” for his actions.