Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Is David Shulkin Trump’s Most Popular Cabinet Member?

David Shulkin is winning plaudits from across the aisle for his work remaking the Veterans Affairs administration and revamping healthcare for former soldiers.

“What motivates me and what motivates Dr. Shulkin is the same, to provide the best care to veterans,” Tennessee Republican representative Phil Roe told Politico. “I don’t know whether he’s a Republican or Democrat, and I could care less.”

Shulkin, who was appointed as VA secretary, after having served as undersecretary under President Obama, has been mum about his partisan affiliations. But he has been aggressive in remaking the agency since his taking office in February.

That agenda has included publishing wait-times at vets’ clinics, pushing for legislation to fire staff he considers substandard and implementing telemedicine and remote diagnosis systems to help vets in far-off areas access care.

Shulkin is different from most who have held his Cabinet position – the Jewish bureaucrat has a work history as a doctor, not a politician.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.