UNITED STATES
The former Secretary of the US Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA), David Shulkin (pictured) says he is deeply concerned about the impact the current Administration is having on the Public Service.
He said he had always strongly believed that any private citizen ought to be willing to come forward and serve their country.
“However, I am concerned whether people will continue to want to do that if they’re subjected to personal attacks and if they’re subjected to an environment where they can essentially be put in a position that is extremely uncomfortable,” Mr Shulkin said.
He has written a book, It Shouldn’t Be This Hard to Serve Your Country: Our Broken Government and the Plight of Veterans, in which he describes the environment in Washington, DC, growing “toxic, chaotic and subversive” during the 13 months he spent working for the Administration of President, Donald Trump.
“I believe Americans are better than this,” Mr Shulkin said.
“We need an environment in Washington that will allow people to be able to want to be successful in public service.”
He said he learned he had been fired in a Twitter post five hours after a conversation with President Trump in which he was told that “everything is fine”.
“We’ve all now gotten used to the fact that this is a President that does things differently and often makes quick decisions, and I’m not privy to what made the President change his mind,” Mr Shulkin said.
He said it was much the same way he was appointed in the first place.
Without ever having a conversation with the newly elected President about his next steps, Mr Shulkin learned he had been nominated to become Secretary of VA while watching Mr Trump announce it live on television during a press conference.
“When it comes to veterans, we shouldn’t make this a partisan issue,” Mr Shulkin said.
“I worked hard to keep it a bipartisan Department and make policies based on the right thing to do, not the politics, but ultimately the politics took over in my situation.”
Washington, DC, 3 November 2019
