No one truly knows what's in Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Scott Pruitt's head except Pruitt himself, but it looks like he wrote a bucket list of vacation hot spots he'd like to visit before he was even appointed by Trump.
The Washington Post reports that Pruitt's luxurious trip to Morocco was just one location on his wish list and that he worked backward from his list to find an official reason for visiting.
After taking office last year, Pruitt drew up a list of at least a dozen countries he hoped to visit and urged aides to help him find official reasons to travel, according to four people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal agency deliberations. Pruitt then enlisted well-connected friends and political allies to help make the trips happen. [...]
So far, Pruitt has traveled only to Italy and Morocco. He has canceled trips to Australia, Japan and Israel after extensive advance work by EPA officials.
In Italy and Morocco, Pruitt granted his friends unusual access to official events. In Italy, for example, Pruitt met up in Rome with Leonard Leo, executive vice president of the conservative Federalist Society.
There's something ironic about taking a federal taxpayer-funded trip to Italy to meet the vice president of the Federalist Society. Of course Pruitt himself also doesn't believe in government, except when it enables him to travel.
It occurs to me that Scott Pruitt is not a financially poor man, but he is an enormous cheapskate. He is redefining grift.