The Pruitt Watch (#swampstyle)

#DrainTheSwamp | #WhatTheyVotedFor

The lede from Bloomberg ought to be enough—

President Donald Trump called his embattled environmental chief Monday to assure him his job is safe amid mounting scrutiny of Scott Pruitt’s travel, hiring practices and an unorthodox condo rental arrangement last year, according to two administration officials.

—to beg the question: So, the clock is ticking, then, right?

The detail would only seem to reiterate:

The president told Pruitt, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, to “keep your head up” and “keep fighting,” because the White House has “got your back” said one of the officials, who asked not to be identified discussing personnel matters. That message was reinforced by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly in a telephone call to Pruitt on Tuesday morning.

Pruitt didn’t respond to questions from reporters at an event Tuesday morning in Washington. When asked about Pruitt before meeting with Baltic leaders later Tuesday, Trump said, “I hope he’s going to be great.”

The question arises generally, pretty much as a matter of course, whenever a White House explicitly expresses confidence in an embattled, high-level official; furthermore, it’s raining cabinet secretaries, these days.

Trump cabinet secretaries tend to hang on well past achieving historical thresholds for disgrace; nor is there really any point in complaining about this, since we are well through the looking glass and the only difference is what matters in the eye of which beholder. In any case, it is easy easy enough to work ourselves up and expect too much; if each of these occasions feels somehow bellwether, then we might wish to reconsider our standards according to the proposition that there is no significant assertion of consistent standard in effect.

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Image note: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt speaks to employees in Washington, D.C., 21 February 2017. (Photo: Joshua Roberts/Reuters)

Dlouhy, Jennifer A., and Jennifer Jacobs. “Trump Told Embattled EPA Chief ‘We’ve Got Your Back,’ Official Says”. Bloomberg. 3 April 2018.