The ?????????? ??? ??????? ????????long, tangled tale of Scott Pruitt -- a pile of grift and corruption come to life -- as head of the Environmental Protection Agency may finally soon be coming to an end. It won't be because of a new scandal, but, rather, the fickle feelings of the folks on Fox News.
SEE ALSO: Salty EPA spokesman slams journalist as 'a piece of trash' for doing her jobOn Wednesday afternoon, as the nation tried to make sense of the EPA chief enlisting an aide with finding him a used mattress and helping him purchase a Chick-fil-A restaurant for his wife, a Fox News Twitter account blasted out this shot at Pruitt's ongoing scandals.
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It's a brilliant tweet for two reasons. First, it's a succinct a breakdown of all of the trouble Pruitt has stewed up in the mere 16 months since he assumed office. You'd be forgiven if you can't keep track of the first class airfare, the soundproof phone booth, his super pricey security detail, and, well, everything else.
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Second, it's a crystal clear shot at Pruitt from the Trump administration's biggest ally in the media, and a sign that there is little support left for Pruitt from anywhere except, strangely enough, Trump himself.
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But it's not tough to envision Trump coming around now that Fox News is hounding on Pruitt's lack of institutional control, a violator of the kind of cronyism and financial debauchery Trump swore to put an end to with his "drain the swamp" rallying cry.
And the typically Trump-friendly network has been banging on Pruitt for his malfeasance for a while now. Back in April, Fox News correspondent Ed Henry went after Pruitt hard for his scandals in an extended interview. Henry pushed Pruitt on big pay raises the EPA chief gave to his aides as well as well as that too-good-to-be-true D.C. rental deal he landed.
At one point, Pruitt became so flustered that he scolded Henry, "I would, Ed, I thought we were going to talk about substantive issues."
A slightly exasperated Henry shot back, "We are talking about substantive [issues]."
The White House was reportedly miffed at Henry for being, you know, a journalist, but that didn't curb Fox's treatment of Pruitt. Pundit Steve Hilton was next up, calling on Trump to fire Pruitt for "exorbitant spending."
Fox News' combative relationship with Pruitt goes back a ways. Over a year ago, Chris Wallace took on Pruitt's notorious climate change views.
Of course, some programs and pundits on Fox News are still very much an issue, pushing controversial and sometimes downright incorrect stories that sometimes can feed into a toxic news cycle aided by Trump's embrace of the network.
But the opposition to Pruitt's continued employment is worth noting because we know how closely Trump watches Fox News and how much some of his own statements echo what he sees on the network. It would seem to follow that if Fox News is now taking on Pruitt's corruption, that would be enough to push Trump over the edge on firing him.
After all, Fox News' influence on Trump has been well-documented. In April, a White House official told the Washington Postthat some in the administration sometimes try to get their messages to Trump via the network, saying, "He will listen more when it is on TV."
It's been such a blatant pattern that John Oliver has a made a running joke out of planting ads on Fox News to troll Trump on certain issues.
Despite this ongoing pressure, as well as new stories that keep cropping up like Pruitt's dogged pursuit of lotion and his White House lunches, this is one hook on which Trump just won't bite. On Wednesday, appearing at FEMA for a visit to mark the start of hurricane season, Trump stood by Pruitt and saved his ire for embattled Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
For once, it seems Trump's stubbornness is overriding his tendency to be influenced by Fox News and bad press.
Pruitt's yet to run afoul of Trump, unlike Sessions and former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson who've both been less fortunate.
Whether or not Pruitt can hang on much longer is a different story. Now that Fox News has fully turned on him, the internal pressure will likely increase on Trump to cut Pruitt loose.
As long as he keeps trying to buy Trump Hotel mattresses, or at least stay off the cover of Timemagazine, maybe he can still curry his boss's favor.