Story highlights Trump has fumed about Price's use of private jets

Trump said he will decide Friday evening whether to keep Price

(CNN) President Donald Trump said he will decide Friday evening whether to retain his health secretary Tom Price amid a growing private plane scandal that has engulfed the administration.

Departing the White House for his golf club in New Jersey, Trump told reporters Price was a "very fine man," but that he was undecided on his fate.

"We're going to make a decision sometime tonight," Trump said.

He bemoaned the optics of the matter, which he said obscured what otherwise had been a cost-saving tenure.

"It's not a question of confidence -- I was disappointed because i didn't like it cosmetically or otherwise. I was disappointed. And you know, this is an administration that saves hundreds of millions of dollars on renegotiating things, on new trade deals that will be -- you'll be seeing the results very soon," Trump said. "We're renegotiating NAFTA, we renegotiating so many things and making much better deals. You'll be seeing other things come up. So I don't like to see somebody that, perhaps, there's the perception that it wasn't right."

Read More