Sanders won’t say if Trump has confidence in Pruitt

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Wednesday declined to answer directly when asked if President Trump has confidence in embattled Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Scott Pruitt.

Sanders confirmed that the White House is investigating whether Pruitt’s now-famous $50-a-night lease arrangement in a Capitol Hill condo last year was proper.

“The president thinks that he’s done a good job, particularly on the deregulation front,” Sanders told reporters at the White House when asked point-blank whether Trump has confidence in Pruitt.

{mosads}“But again, we take this seriously and we’re looking into it, and we’ll let you know when we’re finished,” she said.

The questions referred to reports over the past week that Pruitt rented a D.C. condo from the wife of a lobbyist whose firm had numerous fossil-fuel clients. Pruitt paid $50 per night for the two-bedroom unit, but only on nights he slept there.

On Monday, The New York Times reported that the EPA approved one of the lobbyist’s client’s projects while Pruitt was staying in the property.

Asked if Trump is OK with the arrangement, Sanders said he is not.

“We’re reviewing the situation. When we have had the chance to have a deeper dive on it and we’ll let you know the outcomes of that, but we’re currently reviewing that here at the White House,” she said.

Pruitt, who has also faced scrutiny over his travel expenses and a $43,000 soundproof “privacy booth” he had installed in his agency office suite, was further hit this week by reports that the EPA used the Safe Drinking Water Act to secure raises — previously rejected by the White House — for two of his closest aides.

On Wednesday, he said he didn’t know about the raises at the time. 

“My staff and I found out about it yesterday and I changed it,” Pruitt told Fox News.

Trump called Pruitt on Monday night to tell him “keep your head up, keep fighting” and that “we have your back,” a White House official said earlier in the week.

The administration, which has been dealing with a string of high-profile departures this year, has occasionally voiced support for an official relatively soon before their ouster. On March 26, a White House spokesman said Trump retained confidence in Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin; Shulkin was fired two days later.

Other high-level administration exits in the past six weeks include Trump’s communications director, top economic adviser and secretary of State.