What: A shot across EPA head Scott Pruitt’s bow, fraught with symbolic meaning.
Who: Greenpeace.
Why we care: One of Donald Trump’s campaign promises was to drain the swamp in Washington, D.C., emptying the White House of lobbyist gators and Wall Street toads, etc. Cut to a year and a half later and the swamp is now swamped with so many mucky layers it seems uninhabitable even by sludge-monsters. Indeed, Trump has had to fire cabinet members like Tom Price for abusing the system, but one executive with improbable longevity is EPA head Scott Pruitt. The man racks up scandals at a rate that is impressive even for the Trump administration–including 10 of them just this past month. On the occasion of World Environment Day, Greenpeace decided to call out the Earth-unfriendly fraud, throwing one of his most recent scandals back in his face.
“BREAKING: We’re delivering a mattress to EPA head Scott Pruitt from Trump hotel because he wore out his last one in bed with Energy Lobbyists,” the environmentalist organization announced on its Facebook page. In addition to the concept of Pruitt being “in bed with” lobbyists, the gesture is a nod to the recent discovery that Pruitt dispatched one of his aides to find out how much Trump International Hotel in Washington would charge for purchasing one of its used mattresses. It was a bizarre errand, fitting fodder for Greenpeace to use in its World Environment Day stunt.
Scott Pruitt, @EPA Administrator has met with industry officials 25 times more often than environmental groups during his short time in office, hired former fossil fuel lobbyists to work for him all over the Agency #BootPruitt #WorldEnvironmentDay pic.twitter.com/R6sknD7u6Q
— Greenpeace USA (@greenpeaceusa) June 6, 2018
At this point, it seems like the only reason Trump is keeping Pruitt around is as a lightning rod to deflect from his own controversies. (Well, that and to dismantle necessary environmental regulations on behalf of corporate interests.) As long as Pruitt is racking up attention for his corruption, though, it may as well be creative attention like this.
Watch the Facebook Live video of Greenpeace delivering the mattress below.