Washington: After being rebuked by President Donald Trump for racking up a bill of at least $400,000 (Dh1.46 million) on chartered flights, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said Thursday that he would pay back taxpayers for the cost of his travels and stop flying on private jets.
But that does not mean his job is safe.
Trump has grown incensed by Price’s liberal renting of expensive planes, which he views as undercutting his drain-the-swamp campaign message, according to several administration officials with direct knowledge of the president’s thinking. Through intermediaries and the media, Trump has let it be known that offering reimbursement as repentance was no guarantee that Price would keep his job.
On Thursday, Price tried anyway.
“I look forward to gaining, regaining the trust that the American people, some of the American people, may have lost in the activities that I took,” Price said in an appearance on “Special Report with Bret Baier” on Fox News.
Price called Trump “a remarkable leader” and said the president had expressed displeasure to him “very clearly.”
With his job on the line, Price, a physician and former Georgia congressman, spent much of the day posing for photo ops - receiving his flu shot and attending a panel on the opioid crisis with first lady Melania Trump. In a statement, he expressed “regret” over the cost to taxpayers and said he would write a personal check to the Treasury to cover his expenses: “The taxpayers won’t pay a dime for my seat on those planes.”
Price also said that he would cooperate with the department’s inspector general’s office on a review of his travel. The episode comes amid heightened scrutiny surrounding the pricey travel habits of several other Cabinet members, including Scott Pruitt, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
But the president is said to have grown particularly frustrated with Price over the past week, as Politico published a series of reports detailing the secretary’s spending.
The newspaper said Price took at least 26 flights on private jets, including to Nashville, Tennessee, where his son lives, and where Price owns a condominium, and to St Simons Island, a Georgia resort area where Price owns property and recently spoke at a medical conference. Price also booked a charter flight that included a leg to Philadelphia from Dulles International Airport in Virginia, a distance of about 130 miles. Price told Baier that all were undertaken with his agency’s approval.
Baier pressed him on the cost of that travel - which Politico estimated at more than $400,000, a number that has not been disputed - and asked why Price had offered to pay back only $51,887. Price said that amount covers the cost of his seat on the trips and that the total bill remains under review.
On Thursday night, Politico reported that the White House had approved Price flying on US military aircraft to Europe, Asia and Africa for official events, at a cost of more than $500,000. The military flights were approved by Joe Hagin, a White House deputy chief of staff, an administration official confirmed, and Raj Shah, a White House spokesman, said such travel “is sometimes an appropriate and necessary use of resources.”
Combined, the total cost to taxpayers for Price’s flights comes to more than $1 million, according to Politico.
In recent days, Trump fumed to senior aides about the negative headlines over Price’s travel and the damage it was causing the president, according to three officials with direct knowledge of the situation.
On Wednesday, Trump rebuked Price for his travels. “I am not happy,” Trump told reporters. “I’m going to look at it. I am not happy about it, and I let him know it.”
The president’s anger has escalated over the past 24 hours, and he has told at least one person close to him that he reserves the right to fire Price if new revelations come to light that reflect badly on Trump.
Asked if Price’s job was in jeopardy, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, declined to comment, except to say, “We’ll see what happens.”
Price’s announcement that he would reimburse the government for the cost of his seats on the private flights blindsided administration officials and raised questions about whether it was legal to do so, according to two people close to the White House. Additionally, one official said Price’s offer could set a precedent for others in the administration to repay their own travels.
