Minutes after the president tweeted that he had accepted the resignation of embattled Environmental Protection Administrator Scott Pruitt, speculation started in official Washington over who would succeed him as head of the agency.
Mentioned immediately as possible successors are Matt Mead, Wyoming's two-term Republican governor, and Russell Harding, former director of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.
Harding, now a senior fellow in environmental and regulatory policy at the conservative Mackinac Center for Public Policy, formerly held senior positions in environmental and natural resources departments in Alaska, Arizona, and Missouri.
For now, however, Trump was not giving any clues as to whose name he would send to the Senate as a permanent replacement for Pruitt. At least for the immediate future, Pruitt's deputy, Andrew Wheeler, would take over at EPA as acting administrator.
For months, Pruitt has been under steady fire in the press for what many consider exorbitant official expenses. He has also been criticized for paying a low fee to rent the condominium of a Washington energy lobbyist and for giving pay raises to two top aides even after the White House refused to sign off on them.
Although Pruitt's exit had long been expected, a member of Pruitt's staff told Newsmax an hour before Trump's tweet that "he's not going anywhere anytime soon."
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.