Power Struggle Inside Department of Veteran’s Affairs

Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin “is managing the government’s second-largest bureaucracy from a fortified bunker atop the agency’s Washington headquarters,” the Washington Post reports.

“He has canceled the morning meetings once attended by several of President Trump’s political appointees — members of his senior management team — gathering instead with aides he trusts not to miscast his remarks. Access to Shulkin’s 10th-floor executive suite was recently revoked for several people he has accused of lobbying the White House to oust him. He and his public-affairs chief have not spoken in weeks. And in a sign of how deeply the secretary’s trust in his senior staff has eroded, an armed guard now stands outside his office.”