Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin is now in an all-out war with his own staff.
The Washington Post reports that Shulkin's relationship has now gotten so toxic with some of his staff members that "an armed guard now stands outside his office."
The Post's report claims that Shulkin, who is a holdover from the Obama administration but who was renominated by Trump at the start of his term, has become paranoid that his own staff is trying to get him fired from his job, and the secretary's "10th-floor executive suite was recently revoked for several people he has accused of lobbying the White House to oust him."
Shulkin came under fire from members of his own department earlier this year when an inspector general's report found that he improperly accepted tickets to a tennis tournament during a government trip to the United Kingdom in 2017.
According to the Post, this report so infuriated some veterans that they began issuing threats against Shulkin -- which was what led him to place an armed guard outside his office.
Given this atmosphere of paranoia and mistrust, one senior VA manager tells the Post that needed reforms at the agency are being stalled.
"Things have come to a grinding halt," the source said. "It's killing the agency. Nobody trusts each other."