Shadowy Threesome Known As ‘Mar-A-Lago Crowd’ Have Been Silently Exerting Influence On Veterans Affairs
The Mar-a-Lago group is led by the reclusive chairman of Marvel Entertainment, Isaac Perlmutter, 75, a longtime friend of Mr. Trump’s and a member of his West Palm Beach golf club. Veterans advocates are worried that the group is going to exert pressure on new VA Secretary Robert Wilkie.
The New York Times:
Outside Influence: The Veterans Agency’s Shadowy Leadership
A new secretary was sworn in at the Department of Veterans Affairs in late July, but the people actually in charge of the agency may not have changed, and they are not at the headquarters in Washington, but on the manicured grounds of Mar-a-Lago, President Trump’s West Palm Beach estate. A shadowy threesome known in the department as the “Mar-a-Lago crowd” has been quietly empowered by the president to help steer the veterans agency, and the men are exerting their influence in ways that affect millions of veterans, according to interviews with four former senior officials at the department and a report by the nonprofit investigative news organization ProPublica. (Philipps, 8/10)
