In bountiful tweets and self-praise, President Donald Trump plays up “tremendous progress” in improving care for veterans in his first year. His claims fall short of reality.
Trump’s initiatives have yet to show meaningful impact, and his campaign promises of expanding access to doctors and adding mental health specialists are unfulfilled.
Several of the 2017 accomplishments highlighted in a Trump tweet this week are largely symbolic — proclamations routinely signed by presidents or initiatives that haven’t taken full effect or were later acknowledged by the Department of Veterans Affairs to be largely unneeded. In the meantime, wait times for veterans seeking treatment at VA medical centers haven’t improved much, as Congress remains deadlocked over a long-term fix aimed at expanding access to doctors, in part due to rising costs.
The VA also admits it fell short of adding 1,000 new mental health professionals last year,
