Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump announced Friday that he is nominating Robert Wilkie to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, three weeks after his previous nominee withdrew from the confirmation process amid controversy.

Wilkie is currently the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness but has been serving as the VA's acting secretary since the President fired VA Secretary David Shulkin in late March. But Trump said the announcement came as a surprise even to Wilkie.

"Acting Secretary Wilkie -- who, by the way, has done an incredible job at the VA, and I'll be informing him in a little while, he doesn't know this yet -- that we're going to be putting his name up for nomination to be secretary of the Veterans Administration," Trump said, before shaking Wilkie's hand. "I'm sorry that I ruined the surprise. I'll see you anyway."

Wilkie's nomination capped a tumultuous seven weeks since the President fired VA Secretary David Shulkin and nominated White House physician Ronny Jackson to replace him, only to watch Jackson's nomination flame out amid allegations of improper behavior during his time at the helm of the White House medical unit.

Trump made the announcement during an unrelated White House event on prison reform and as news coverage of the latest mass shooting in America blanketed the airwaves. He delivered the VA news moments after expressing his "sadness and heartbreak" over the Santa Fe, Texas, school shooting.

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