WASHINGTON -- After weeks of speculation, embattled Sec. David Shulkin is out as the head of the Department of Veterans Affairs, President Donald Trump announced in a pair of tweets on Wednesday.

Trump is nominating a Texan, Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson, to succeed Shulkin, a former Obama administration official and the first non-veteran ever to head the VA.

Jackson, native of Levellend, has served since 2013 as the physician to the president, and gained a national profile earlier this year for holding a sweeping press conference on the president's health.

(FILES) In this file photo taken on January 16, 2018 White House physician Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson speaks at the press briefing at the White House in Washington, DC, on January 16, 2018. Trump announced March 27, 2018 that he is replacing Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin with his personal physician Ronny L. Jackson. / AFP PHOTO / NICHOLAS KAMMNICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images (NICHOLAS KAMM / Getty Images)

Trump has selected Robert Wilkie, the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, to serve as the acting head of the VA, he announced.

I am pleased to announce that I intend to nominate highly respected Admiral Ronny L. Jackson, MD, as the new Secretary of Veterans Affairs.... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 28, 2018

“I am pleased to announce that I intend to nominate highly respected Admiral Ronny L. Jackson, MD, as the new Secretary of Veterans Affairs...In the interim, Hon. Robert Wilkie of DOD will serve as Acting Secretary. I am thankful for Dr. David Shulkin’s service to our country and to our GREAT VETERANS!” Trump tweeted.

Shulkin is the second Cabinet secretary to depart over controversies involving expensive travel, following former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price's resignation last September.

And his dismissal comes amid a spare of departures from the Trump administration this month. Trump gave the boot to Texan and Sec. of State Rex Tillerson and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster. Economic adviser Gary Cohn and communications director Hope Hicks also left.

The news of Shulkin's departure comes despite insistence from the White House as recently as Monday that Trump still had confidence in Shulkin.

The ouster had been expected, with three administration officials telling the Associated Press earlier this week that Trump is planned to oust Shulkin amid an extraordinary rebellion at the agency and damaging government investigations into his alleged spending abuses.

Shulkin's fate had remained in doubt following a blistering report by VA's internal watchdog in February that found he had improperly accepted Wimbledon tennis tickets and his staff had doctored emails to justify his wife traveling to Europe with him at taxpayer expense.

He had agreed to reimburse the government more than $4,000 as a result. Shulkin also blamed internal drama at the agency on a half-dozen or so political appointees who were rebelling against him and VA Deputy Secretary Tom Bowman, insisting he had White House backing to fire them.

But the continuing VA infighting and a fresh raft of VA watchdog reports documenting leadership failures and spending waste -- as well as new allegations that Shulkin used a member of his security detail to run personal errands -- proved too much of a distraction.

As recently as Monday, White House spokesman Hogan Gidley sought to dismiss reports of Shulkin's imminent dismissal as head of the VAs, the government's second largest department with 370,000 employees. He told Fox News Channel, "we hear these types of rumors every day."

"At this point in time, though he does have confidence in Dr. Shulkin," Gidley said. "But as you know, the president wants to put the right people in the right place at the right time and that could change."

The department provides medical care and other benefits to 9 million military veterans in more than 1,700 health facilities around the U.S.

Washington correspondent Katie Leslie contributed to this report.