President Trump said Friday that his administration's plan to reform the Department of Veterans Affairs is "ahead of schedule" and announced to a group of veterans' service organizations that he would conduct a meeting with his veterans advisory board later in the evening at Mar-a-Lago.

"During my campaign, I outlined a detailed plan for reforming veterans care throughout the country," Trump said before a listening session with veterans advocates at the White House. "It's moving, I think I can say honestly, ahead of schedule."

"A lot of improvements are being made," Trump said.

Since Trump's pick for VA secretary, David Shulkin, was confirmed unanimously by the Senate in February, the administration has remained largely silent on its progress toward implementing Trump's 10-point plan for VA reform.

Trump's plan included a hiring surge of mental health professionals and the creation of a direct line to the White House that veterans could call to log complaints about the VA's performance.

"It's going to change, and under my administration it will change," Trump said of the "horrible stories" that have trickled out of the VA over the past few years.

A meeting attendee told the Washington Examiner that Trump expressed interest in ramping up the removal of substandard VA employees, a policy he championed on the campaign trail.

"At one point the president said that he wants Secretary Shulkin to start firing people as soon as possible," the attendee said. "President Trump was very passionate about allowing Dr. Shulkin to fire bad VA employees."

Trump mentioned that Ike Perlmutter, CEO of Marvel, would be in attendance at a meeting Friday evening of doctors and businessmen tapped to help the administration shape its VA policy.

"Tonight I'm having a major meeting with some of the people we put on a board," Trump said. "We're having a meeting tonight at what we call, affectionately, the southern White House."

Although Shulkin, who attended the listening session at the White House Friday morning, said he would not travel to Florida for the advisory board meeting, Trump said his VA secretary was involved in creating the panel that would ensure "no more games" are "played at the VA."

"David and a group of brilliant, brilliant doctors and businessmen are forming a board," Trump said.

Representatives from the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, AMVETS and Concerned Veterans for America were among the 10 veteran advocacy groups the White House invited to participate in the listening session on Friday.

Trump's federal budget, which his administration unveiled earlier this week, offered the VA a $4.4 billion increase in funding.

Mark Lucas, executive director of Concerned Veterans for America, said he encouraged Trump to support the VA Accountability First Act, a bill that would give Shulkin more authority to fire low-performing VA employees that has already passed the House and is now moving into the Senate.

"The president opened it up. He was very engaging," Lucas told the Examiner of how the meeting proceeded. "He wanted to hear from us, what our top issues were. He would interject and have dialogue back and forth. You can tell that he genuinely cares about veterans' issues."

Lucas said several of the veterans' advocates present at the listening session discussed the lingering health issues many veterans face due to their past exposure to Agent Orange.