Senior White House officials are losing confidence in Shulkin. One told me it would be “an understatement” to describe Shulkin’s position as precarious. “A small, little, tiny breeze would push him over the edge,” the official said. “If there’s any hint of anything wrong” in the next inspector general’s report, “I don’t imagine he hangs on.”

The White House has been befuddled by Shulkin’s media appearances. Senior officials were especially furious when he told Politico that he had their blessing to clean house.

A senior White House official told me it was nonsense that Kelly authorized a purge, and that the White House made that clear to Shulkin when it blocked him from firing Trump appointees John Ullyot and Curt Cashour.