Trump will nominated his personal doctor, Ronny Jackson, as the new secretary of the department tasked with helping troops receive healthcare and other benefits after their tenure as service members.
The White House failed to provide a precise rationale for why Shulkin was fired. Trump told reporters Shulkin did "many great things" and the president is "grateful for his service."
Shulkin served at of the Department for Veterans Affairs from 2015 until 2018, and was one of the few high-level holdovers to work in both the Obama and Trump administrations.
The decision follows a major staff shake up at the White House. Rex Tillerson was recently removed from his role as Secretary of State. Mike Pompeo was reslotted from director of the Central Intelligence Agency to the diplomatic post. This left a vacancy atop the CIA. Trump has nominated longtime CIA officer Gina Haspel to lead the agency, also known as "Bloody Gina" for her involvement in torture programs.
White House National Security Advisor HR McMaster recently announced that he would be retiring from public service by the start of the summer. The president nominated war hawk John Bolton to replace McMaster.
Former President Jimmy Carter said it was "maybe one of the worst mistakes that President Trump has made since he's been in office is his employment of John Bolton, who has been advocating a war in North Korea for a long time and even an attack on Iran, and who has been one of the leading figures in orchestrating the decision to invade Iraq."