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Veterans Affairs Head: I Was Forced Out Over Privatization

In op-ed, David J. Shulkin says he fears Trump cronies will risk care provision for personal agendas.

David J. Shulkin, the just-fired secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, has launched an extraordinary attack on the “toxic” Trump political appointees that forced him out of the job on Wednesday. In a New York Times Op-Ed published Thursday, he claims that some of those officials were motivated by their own agendas and not the care of the people they were hired to serve, and was entangled in a “brutal power struggle” against efforts to privatize veterans’ health care. “I am convinced that privatization is a political issue aimed at rewarding select people and companies with profits, even if it undermines care for veterans,” he wrote. “In recent months, though, the environment in Washington has turned so toxic, chaotic, disrespectful and subversive that it became impossible for me to accomplish the important work that our veterans need and deserve.”