President Trump announced Friday he will promote Robert Wilkie to serve as the next Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Wilkie is currently the VA acting director and took over in March when VA Secretary David Shulkin was fired.
"He [Wilkie] doesn’t know this yet,” Trump said during a White House event on prison reform. “I’m sorry that I ruined the surprise.”
Trump just announced he's nominating Acting VA Secretary Robert Wilkie to be the actual secretary. Wilkie was in the room and didn't appear to know this was coming.
— David Martosko (@dmartosko) May 18, 2018
Wilkie's nomination comes three weeks after former VA nominee and longtime White House Doctor Ronny Jackson withdrew his name from consideration.
Yesterday Wilkie met with President Trump at the White House.
V.A. nominee Robert Wilkie was at the WH yesterday to accept quarterly payroll check from Pres Trump for V.A. caregiver programs. pic.twitter.com/OWV8DbOEQg
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) May 18, 2018
This is a developing story, stay tuned for updates.
