For Pruitt, gaining Trump's favor -- and keeping it -- came through fierce allegiance

By Josh Dawsey, Juliet Eilperin and Brady Dennis
June 16 at 5:39 PM

In the run-up to the decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement last May, President Trump wanted the opinion of Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt. But when the president’s personal secretary called the EPA, Pruitt wasn’t around.

As it turned out, he was already in the White House, having just ordered the ice cream special in the Mess, where he often dined hoping for just such an opportunity to talk to the president. Once in the Oval Office, Pruitt reinforced Trump’s desire to leave the accord, arguing against other advisers so long that an aide had to bring a cup so his melting ice cream wouldn’t drip onto the presidential rug.

Pruitt’s actions that May day are emblematic of how he has built his relationship with Trump — ingratiating himself personally, extolling the president’s abilities and strongly backing him on policy in meetings and in regular one-on-one conversations. That approach also helps explain how the former Oklahoma attorney general has kept his job amid a bevy of transgressions that are similar to, or worse than, those that have cost other Cabinet officials their positions.

On climate change, Pruitt shares Trump’s skepticism of mainstream science and has offered a reality-TV-style way to make their case: a televised show in which Pruitt would debate a climate scientist. In an effort to support Trump’s trade stance, he devised a plan to impose stricter fuel-efficiency standards on vehicles made by foreign automakers, even though White House lawyers argued it was illegal. And he has suggested he could take a leading role in renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, on the grounds that he could strike a better deal with Mexico than the president’s current advisers.

“The president’s instincts are completely right,” Pruitt frequently remarks in meetings with Trump, according to a former administration official. When Pruitt addresses groups in the Rachel Carson Room — the ornate green room in the administrator’s suite named for the famed environmentalist — he has said more than once, “I really admire the man who owns the hotel across the street.” The room overlooks the Trump International Hotel.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/for-pruitt-gaining-trumps-favor--and-keeping-it--came-through-fierce-allegiance/2018/06/16/84025ccc-6fe2-11e8-bd50-b80389a4e569_story.html