Fighting to keep his job, health secretary Tom Price said Thursday he’d write a personal cheque to reimburse taxpayers for his travel on charter flights taken on government business and pledged to fly commercial - "no exceptions."

"I regret the concerns this has raised regarding the use of taxpayer dollars," Mr Price said in a statement. "I was not sensitive enough to my concern for the taxpayer." His mea culpa came a day after a public rebuke from President Donald Trump.

The repayment - $51,887.31, according to Price’s office - was for the embattled secretary. Mr Price did not address the overall cost of the flights, which could amount to several hundred thousand dollars.

A former congressman from Georgia regarded as a conservative policy expert, Price said he hopes to keep his Cabinet seat. At the White House, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders wouldn’t go that far.

"We’re going to conduct a full review and we’ll see what happens," she told reporters. Travel by other top officials is also attracting scrutiny.

Mr Price said the president had personally let him know of his displeasure. "As he has said publicly, he wasn’t happy, and he expressed that to me very clearly," Mr Price said on Thursday evening on Fox News.