He had a pricey phone booth built for himself.
When Pruitt isn’t busy denying
climate change or
evolution, he is apparently using the
$43,000 soundproof phone booth that he had built for himself to use in his EPA office. Pruitt told lawmakers that the phone booth was required so that he could do his job … even though no other previous EPA administrator needed one of these booths to do theirs.
That time he spent over $1,500 of taxpayer dollars … on 12 fountain pens.
If there’s one thing to know about Pruitt (other than his love of
global warming), it’s that he simply adores fancy pens, as is evident by his use of $1,560 of taxpayer money to buy 12 fountain pens from a place called the Tiny Jewel Box. But don’t worry, his pen-spending habits may soon be
limited under U.S. federal law.
When he asked an aide to get him a used Trump Hotel mattress.
In a shocking turn of events, it was revealed that Scott Pruitt had asked his top aide to help him
acquire a mattress from the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. … for no governmental-related reason whatsoever. Instead, it sounds like maybe he just liked the mattresses and wanted to save money by buying a used one.
Pruitt rented a room from a D.C. lobbyist with a dubious discount.
During the first few months of his EPA tenure, Pruitt reportedly rented a
below-market room from a member of the lobbying firm Williams & Jensen — who lobbied the agency on environmental issues. He apparently only payed $50 a night for the room in the D.C. condo, and only on nights that he actually slept there.
Pruitt tried to hook his wife up with a Chick-fil-A franchise.
Pruitt
apparently had his aides set up a meeting with Dan Cathy, the chairman and president of fast-food company Chick-fil-A, so that his wife, Marilyn, could set up a
franchise … even though federal ethics laws bar public officials from using their position or staff for private gain. Whoops!
When he spent $105,000 on first-class flights in one year.
During his first year at the EPA, Pruitt spent
more than $105,000 on first-class travel, arguing that the fancy seats made it easier for his security detail to protect him. Sure.
So then he reportedly tried to lease a private jet to cut down on first-class travel.
Pruitt’s dreams of a private jet were apparently scuttled after top advisers objected to the jet’s
$100,000 per month rental costs.
He enlisted members of his security team to find him moisturizer from the Ritz Hotel.
According to the
Washington Post, Pruitt required members of his 24/7 security team to drive him around to find
his preferred moisturizer — which just so happens to come exclusively from the Ritz-Carlton hotels. The report didn’t specify what type of lotion Pruitt exclusively uses, but we can only assume it’s either the signature
Ritz-Carlton Moisturizer, which features “sweet notes of ylang ylang, jasmine, and uplifting bergamot,” or the
Asprey Purple Water Hand & Body Lotion, a spicy, citrus variety sold on the hotel’s website.
Pruitt made it a point to eat at the discounted White House mess hall so often that he was asked to stop.
Pruitt apparently couldn’t stay away from the bargain-priced meals offered at the White House cafeteria, so he
ate there often last year — apparently, too often. As a result, according to
Politico, “a member of the White House’s Cabinet affairs team told agency chiefs of staff in a meeting last year that Cabinet members shouldn’t treat the mess as their personal dining hall.”