By all accounts, Veteran Affairs Secretary David Shulkin probably should have been fired at least a month ago, right around the time it came to light that he made up an award to justify taking his wife on a taxpayer-funded European vacation, during which he directed an aide to act as the couple’s “personal travel concierge.” This being the Trump administration, though, such transgressions do not automatically result in dismissal, and can occasionally even improve one’s standing with the boss! In this case, however, Donald Trump is said to be unhappy with the secretary. But rather than fire him outright, Trump is choosing to make the head of the federal government’s second-largest agency squirm, undermine his ability to get anything done on behalf of the nation’s veterans, and then maybe fire him via social media—or not!

Update, 5:30 P.M.: Trump just fired Shulkin. Yes, it was in a tweet:

Dr. Ronny Jackson, Trump’s personal physician, has no apparent management experience. The Department of Veterans Affairs is the second-largest federal agency in the United States, and probably the worst managed. Good luck, Ronny!

Original story continues below:

According to The Washington Post, Trump has told “a number of advisers that he wants to oust Shulkin,” previously a favorite in his Cabinet. But in the chaotic town of Dysfunctionville that is the White House, aides are unsure how, when, or even if Shulkin’s firing will be carried out. As he did in the cases of Rex Tillerson and H.R. McMaster, Trump is seemingly angling to keep even his own staffers on edge; when Trump let McMaster go, some in the White House complained that the firing had bungled the timing of future ousters, which they had planned to announce all at once. “Anybody who tells you they know what he is thinking is out of their mind,” former longtime Trump Organization executive Louise Sunshine told the Post. “He does not want anyone else to know what he is thinking ever. It is his way of keeping everyone on guard.” The president’s reality TV management style may have held up in the confines of Trump Tower, but it carries slightly bigger consequences in government, where his well-publicized frustrations with, say, Jared Kushner, recently led Mexican officials to all but laugh in the First Son-in-Law’s face. According to the Post, the frantic rumor churn has left “[V.A.] employees, and even senior White House officials wondering if Shulkin still officially speaks for V.A.”

Meanwhile, White House aides are left to “frequently ask . . . for the status of certain Cabinet officials so they will not say anything inaccurate publicly,” and “[look] dumb with yesterday’s information”; an aide declined to discuss the secretary’s future with the Post altogether, while another recently hedged on Fox News that Trump has confidence in Shulkin “at this point in time.” Not helping matters is the fact that Trump will often see someone on TV and think I should hire him for a job that’s already filled, as was the case when he saw Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta on Fox & Friends one day, and reportedly “asked an aide if he could be the next attorney general.”