Scott Pruitt "Resigns" (Was Fired) As EPA Administrator

 (Cartoon image is by Steve Sack in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.)

On Thursday, Trump sent the tweet above, announcing that he had accepted the resignation of Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt. Make no mistake though. Pruitt was fired from that job. He loved the job, and would never have resigned on his own.

Pruitt had piled up a list of ethical lapses that was pages long, and at least 15 investigations into his conduct were under way. Under any ethical presidential administration (of either party), Pruitt would have been fired many months ago. But ethics is not a concern of the Trump administration, and Pruitt was doing what Trump wanted done -- trashing regulations that prevented corporations from fouling our air and poisoning our land and water -- so Trump kept him in the job and ignored the numerous ethical violations.

Pruitt was a friend to the fossil fuel industries and corporate polluters, and he was a climate change denier. That was what Trump liked about him, and putting him in charge of the EPA was like putting a fox in charge of the henhouse. It may take decades to undo the damage Pruitt has done to our environment.

So, why did Trump fire him? If it wasn't for the ethical violations and Trump was happy with him trashing the environment, why was he fired? Simple -- he had become an embarrassment that Trump could no longer ignore. Pruitt was in the headlines too much, taking up headlines and air time that Trump thinks only he has the right to. Trump was getting tired of making excuses for Pruitt and afraid that Pruitt's corruption was starting to taint the Trump administration (even though Trump is the most corrupt individual in Washington).

In the end, Pruitt learned what many other former Trump employees have learned. While Trump demands loyalty, that loyalty is a one-way street (and is never returned). Trump will happily toss an employee under the bus to save himself. On Thursday, Pruitt got tossed under that bus.