Photo: Oliver Contreras/Pool/Getty Images
President Trump defended Labor Secretary Alex Acosta yesterday for his plea deal with Jeffrey Epstein in a previous job, but Acosta doesn’t enjoy much goodwill at the White House.
The big picture: Many conservatives inside the administration don't view Acosta as one of them, and have been urging him to take aggressive deregulatory actions, per sources with direct knowledge.
- Senior officials, including acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, have been frustrated with Acosta for moving too slowly and softly on deregulation.
What he's saying: Trump said he feels "very badly" for Acosta for the controversy about his handling of the sex trafficking case as a federal prosecutor in south Florida: "But we’re going to be looking at that, and looking at it very closely."
The bottom line: Acosta wasn’t standing on the firmest ground before the Epstein case exploded.
Go deeper ... What we know: The Jeffrey Epstein indictment