Story highlights Trump is still meeting with candidates for VA secretary

He is "not inclined" to keep the current officeholder, Bob McDonald, despite urging by some veterans groups

West Palm Beach, Florida (CNN) President-elect Donald Trump may be preparing to ring in the drastic shakeup of the Department of Veterans Affairs he promised during his campaign for president.

The incoming president is "not inclined" to keep the department's current secretary Bob McDonald in his administration, a senior transition official told CNN on Monday. Instead, Trump is considering several potential successors who would align more with the sweeping VA overhaul Trump championed on the campaign trail as he railed against what he called the "most corrupt" and "most incompetently run agency in the United States."

A slew of veterans groups has publicly and privately urged Trump to retain McDonald, a former corporate CEO and Republican donor who was tapped for the VA post in 2014 after health care scandals at the department erupted and has been largely successful at implementing incremental reforms. A group of 20 veterans groups wrote Trump, saying McDonald is "overseeing the largest transformation in the department's history" and whose reforms are showing "early signs of success."

But keeping the current VA secretary may not jive with Trump's anti-establishment rhetoric and campaign promises during the 2016 campaign. And given his campaign's focus on veterans, whom he wildly claimed "are being treated worse than illegal immigrants," the pick may be of critical importance to his base of support.

First among Trump's 10-point reform plan for the department was a vow to "appoint a VA secretary whose sole purpose will be to serve veterans." And he has promised to make it easier to fire VA officials. McDonald, meanwhile, has opposed hardline bills pushed by Republicans in Congress to make it easier to fire VA employees, saying "we can't fire our way to excellence."

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