WASHINGTON

President Donald Trump offered a measured gesture of support for Environmental Protection Agency Secretary Scott Pruitt, but those words of encouragement also came with a White House warning about the ethical questions surrounding his travel spending and ties to Washington lobbyists.

“I hope he’s going to be great,” Trump told reporters Tuesday, declining to reiterate publicly his private praise for Pruitt’s work.

In a phone call Monday, Trump told the EPA chief that “we’ve got your back” and urged him to “keep his head up” and “keep fighting,” according to two administration officials. Trump’s call was quickly followed by one from chief of staff John Kelly, who laid out the White House’s displeasure over being caught blindsided by some of the ethical problems raised, according to two other officials.

Those officials said the praise referred to Pruitt’s work in loosening environmental regulations and his success at getting under the skin of environmental groups. But they added that the tone of Trump’s call was not entirely positive.

All of the officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss private conversations publicly.

Trump has repeatedly praised endangered members of his administration while privately plotting their ouster and interviewing replacements. That tendency, and Trump’s tepid words Tuesday, suggested that Pruitt’s future at EPA is not assured despite the president’s apparently high regard for him over the past year.

Pruitt has come under intense scrutiny for his use of a Capitol Hill condominium owned by the wife of prominent Washington lobbyist Steven Hart, whose firm represents fossil fuel companies. An agency ethics official at the EPA has insisted that Pruitt’s lease didn’t violate federal ethics rules.

A memo signed by Kevin Minoli contends that Pruitt’s $50-a-night rental payments constitute a fair market rate. Pruitt’s lease, however, required him to pay just for nights he occupied in the unit. Pruitt actually paid a total of $6,100 over the six-month period he leased the condo, an average of about $1,000 a month.

But current rental listings for twobedroom apartments in the neighborhood show they typically go for far more than what Pruitt paid. A two-bedroom townhome on the same block as the one leased by Pruitt was advertised for rent on Monday at $3,750 a month. Under the lease, Pruitt technically rented only one of the condo’s two bedrooms, but his daughter stayed in the second room from May to August.

Records show that while Pruitt was living in the condo, he met in his EPA office with a lobbyist from Hart’s firm and two executives from an energy company seeking to scuttle tighter pollution standards for coal-fired power plants. EPA also granted a favorable ruling to a pipeline company also represented by Hart’s firm.

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