Scott Pruitt’s resignation Thursday as the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is a great thing. Pruitt was a good soldier the Trump administration, known for its corruption, its harmful deregulation, its handover of power to the industries that agencies are regulating, and its unprecedented and pervasive ethical failures.
Investigations of Pruitt made the news frequently. Among them are:
- The $50-a-night condo
- The $43,000 phone booth
- Security spending, including a 24-hour security detail of at least 20 people
- Travel expenses, use of private, first-class, and military flights plus trips to Italy and Morocco
- Pay raises and personnel matters, including the use of a provision of the clean drinking water law to hire ex-lobbyists and give raises to political aides
- Undisclosed email addresses
- Industry meetings that may have violated anti-lobbying laws for government officials and inappropriate use of taxpayers’ dollars
- The selection process for science advisory boards
These investigations will be ongoing even though Pruitt has resigned.
So why did Pruitt and why do other conservatives in the Trump administration, including Trump himself, spend government money lavishly?
President Trump said during his campaign that "It is time to drain the swamp in Washington, D.C. This is why I'm proposing a package of ethics reforms to make our government honest once again."
Instead of improving ethics is government, the Trump administration is probably the most dishonest and corrupt in the history of the nation.
Pruitt and others in the administration “are just another part of President Trump’s culture of corruption, where the interests of the politically powerful and their friends are put before the needs of the American public,” concludes the Center for American Progress Action Fund in its article “Tracking Waste and Abuse in Trump’s Cabinet.”
The Trump administration is rife with corruption, waste, and abuse, as those in power seek to benefit themselves at the expense of the American people, the center says.
