by Natalia Castro
Department of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is the just the most recent on a long list of Trump Administration officials who have been pushed out of his confirmed position because of constant bullying from the left. It is clear their goal is to obstruct any progress the Trump Administration makes by launching investigation after investigation into every Trump appointee. The relentless left has made it impossible to be a Trump Administration official unless one has millions of dollars to combat legal investigations.
Zinke explained in his resignation statement, “I love working for the President and am incredibly proud of all the good work we’ve accomplished together. However, after 30 years of public service, I cannot justify spending thousands of dollars defending myself and my family against false allegations. It is better for the President and Interior to focus on accomplishments rather than fictitious allegations.”
Zinke was recently subject to a Department of Justice probe examining a land deal made with an oil services giant in his hometown which some viewed as a conflict of interest. Zinke has also been accused of misusing taxpayer funds for travel expenditures.
Zinke has called these attacks “vicious and politically motivated” and vehemently denied them throughout the last year.
Unfortunately, these attacks are not surprising.
Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price has pushed out of his position in Sept. 2017. Price chose to resign after investigations mounted over his use of public funds to fly across the country on business in a private plane. Price offered to pay for the seats he used, but ultimately resigned as allegations of misused funds continued to pile up and “distract” from his agencies business.
In March 2018, Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin experienced the same badgering by the left as he was accused of, once again, misuse of taxpayer funds.
Oddly enough, Shulkin served for two years under president Obama with no allegations of misconduct, but within a year of serving at the Trump Administration, Shulkin has accused of using taxpayer funds for personal benefit, such as to purchase his wife’s air travel on a flight the two of them were on.
Shulkin claimed during a congressional hearing that these political allegations made it nearly impossible for him to do his job. Eventually, this conflict put him at odds with his own administration and the White House pressured him to resign to prevent further distraction from implementing Trump’s VA reform agenda.
Perhaps most egregiously, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt was forced into resignation after nonstop attacks from the left which put both his and his family’s life in danger.
Pruitt was attacked for spending taxpayer funds on travel and security details. But as the EPA’s assistant inspector general for investigations, Patrick Sullivan, told CNN on Nov. 2017, “We have at least four times — four to five times the number of threats against Mr. Pruitt than we had against [Obama’s EPA Chief] Ms. McCarthy… They run the variety of direct death threats — ‘I’m going to put a bullet in your brain’ — to implied threats — ‘if you don’t classify this particular chemical in this particular way, I’m going to hurt you.’”
Before resigning from his office, Pruitt has at least 70 open probes into threats against him and his family. Still, the left chastised him for needing security details and private travel arrangements.
Pruitt was seen as one of the most effective members of Trump’s cabinet when it came to reining in the out of control bureaucracy and dismissing needless environmental regulations. It is clear their attacks against him were the consequence of his success.
The left has taken to bullying anyone they do not like out of office in order to obstruct the Trump agenda. After 30 years of public service, individuals like Ryan Zinke are being forced to defend every action they take to the tune of thousands of dollars. Democrats are successfully making it nearly impossible to work for the Trump Administration and even harder to get anything done. It seems they will not stop until there is no one left to make American great again.
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Natalia Castro is a contributing editor and policy analyst at Americans for Limited Government.
Photo “Tom Price” by U.S. Air Force photo/Don Peek.
