“President Donald Trump personally directed administration officials to report to one of his largest donors, Marvel Entertainment chairman Ike Perlmutter, according to a new book by former Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin.”
“Starting with Shulkin’s interview for the cabinet post, Trump routinely dialed Perlmutter into meetings and asked if the secretary was keeping Perlmutter informed and happy, Shulkin wrote. Perlmutter would call Shulkin as often as multiple times a day, and White House officials such as Stephen Miller would scold Shulkin for not being in close enough contact with Perlmutter and two of his associates at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club in Florida…”
“The unusual influence over the VA wielded by Perlmutter, along with doctor Bruce Moskowitz and lawyer Marc Sherman, was first revealed by a ProPublica investigation in August 2018, prompting ongoing investigations by the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee and the Government Accountability Office. But Shulkin’s book provides new details on Trump’s direct role in initiating and encouraging the arrangement.”
“’There was a ‘second track’ of VA decision-making led by the president’s alternative advisers that didn’t include me,’ Shulkin wrote in the book, the first inside account by a former member of Trump’s cabinet. ‘Ike, Bruce and Marc had the president’s ear in ways that I did not, even as his cabinet secretary…’”
“Since the Mar-a-Lago advisers had no official positions, they were not subject to laws requiring federal employees to disclose and divest assets to avoid conflicts of interest…” Read the full article here.
Source: How Donald Trump Turned to a Comics Titan to Shape the VA – By Isaac Arnsdorf, October 22, 2019. ProPublica.
