Tom Price, the health and human services secretary, resigned under pressure on Friday after racking up at least $400,000 in travel bills for chartered flights and undermining President Trump’s promise to drain the swamp of a corrupt and entitled capital.
Already in trouble with Mr. Trump for months of unsuccessful efforts to repeal and replace President Barack Obama’s health care program, Mr. Price failed to defuse the president’s anger by offering regret and a partial reimbursement. His departure was the latest from an administration buffeted by turbulence at the top, and capped a week of setbacks for the president.
“I’m not happy, O.K.?” Mr. Trump told reporters who asked about Mr. Price as the president prepared to leave for his New Jersey golf club for the weekend, barely an hour before the resignation was announced. “I can tell you, I’m not happy.” He called Mr. Price “a very good man” but added that the secretary’s offer to pay back the government for just part of the cost of the private flights “would be unacceptable.”
Mr. Price ran afoul of one of the president’s most consequential campaign pledges. While some of Mr. Trump’s advisers privately make light of his vow to drain the swamp of Washington privilege, to many of his voters, it was a threshold promise.
The firestorm over Mr. Price came as the president was already on the defensive with his base, as the incumbent mainstream Republican senator he backed in an Alabama primary race lost to an insurgent channeling Mr. Trump’s election movement.
“It’s hard to see how a cabinet secretary can drain the swamp from 42,000 feet in the plush interior of a taxpayer-funded Gulfstream 4,” said Laura Ingraham, a conservative talk show host and Trump supporter who, like others, defied the president by backing Roy Moore, the insurgent Senate candidate who won in Alabama.
Mr. Trump berated Mr. Price in the Oval Office on Friday afternoon for about two hours before heading out to meet with reporters, according to people informed about the meeting. All cabinet travel requests now must be cleared by the White House, they said.
The White House’s announcement of Mr. Price’s departure was sparse, with none of the customary thanks for his service; it said simply that he had “offered his resignation earlier today and the president accepted.”
In his resignation letter to Mr. Trump, Mr. Price said: “I have spent 40 years both as a doctor and public servant putting people first. I regret that the recent events have created a distraction from these important objectives. Success on these issues is more important than any one person. In order for you to move forward without further disruption, I am officially tendering my resignation.”
Mr. Trump tapped Don J. Wright, a deputy assistant secretary for health and the director of the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, to serve as acting secretary. Possible candidates for a successor include Seema Verma, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and Scott Gottlieb, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.
