Scott Pruitt cuts other programs at EPA to fund his own personal guard

Suggested uniform design. Certainly Pruitt should avoid anything green.

Nothing says secure in your own position like being followed around by a team of your own special guards.

While the draft budget for the EPA obtained by the Washington Post this month shows massive cuts to environment, health, and climate change programs—including the elimination of a program to prevent childhood exposure to lead paint—it also includes a request to hire 10 additional security guards to create an around-the-clock personal security detail for Pruitt, the New York Times reports.

This Pruittorian Guard would be a first for an EPA director. In fact, it would be twice the size of the security staff for the whole agency. Just who is Pruitt worried about?

What security menace is Pruitt guarding against? According to Myron Ebell, who led Trump’s EPA transition team but is no longer employed by the administration, Pruitt is at risk from his own employees—and “the left.”

Ebell was all in favor of cutting the EPA by two-thirds, and would likely be open to the suggestion that the remaining one-third should be all security forces empowered to punch “the left.” Certainly it’s worth cutting programs like those that protect millions of kids from the real danger of lead so that Pruitt can feel secure against contact with dirty hippies.

And Pruitt isn’t the only one who is adding on some private muscle.

Similarly, security detail for education secretary Betsy DeVos has reached unprecedented levels: Typically, the secretary of education is guarded by about six agents from within the Department of Education. Since her contentious confirmation, DeVos has been under the protection of the US Marshals Service, costing $8 million over eight months.