NEW YORK — President-elect Donald Trump on Monday named former New York congressman Lee Zeldin to guide the Environmental Safety Company as he continues to construct out his future administration with loyal supporters.
Zeldin, a Republican who mounted a failed bid for governor of New York in 2022, will “guarantee honest and swift deregulatory choices that might be enacted in a option to unleash the facility of American companies,” Trump stated in an announcement. Zeldin additionally will preserve “the best environmental requirements, together with the cleanest air and water on the planet,” Trump stated.
Trump’s assertion misidentified the title of the company Zeldin was picked to guide, labeling it the Environmental Protecting Company.
Zeldin, who left Congress in January 2023, was a stunning decide for the position. His public appearances each in his personal campaigns and on behalf of Trump typically had him talking about points such because the navy, nationwide safety, antisemitism, U.S.-Israel relations, immigration and crime.
He was among the many Republicans in Congress who voted towards certifying the 2020 election outcomes. Whereas in Congress, he didn’t serve on committees with oversight of environmental coverage and had a lifetime rating of 14% from the League of Conservation Voters throughout his eight years in Congress.
Within the 2022 governor’s race, Zeldin vowed to reverse a fracking ban imposed by Democrats.
In an interview Monday on Fox Information Channel, Zeldin, 44, stated that he’ll search to make sure that the US is ready to “pursue power dominance … deliver again American jobs to the auto business and a lot extra.”
He’s excited to implement Trump’s financial agenda, Zeldin stated, including: “I believe the American individuals are so hungry for it. It’s one of many large the explanation why they’re sending him again to the White Home.”
In 2016 Zeldin pushed to vary the designation of about 150 sq. miles of federal waters in Lengthy Island Sound to state jurisdiction for New York and Rhode Island. He needed to open the world to striped bass fishing.
Zeldin stated on the time that he needed to revive native management and customary sense to fishery administration. He later pushed to permit striped bass fishing in an modification to a federal spending invoice. Environmental teams criticized the modification, which they stated risked overfishing within the space.
Trump typically pointed to Zeldin’s efficiency within the 2022 gubernatorial race, when the Republican did much better than had been anticipated towards Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul. Whereas Trump didn’t win New York state in final week’s election, he did much better than he had throughout earlier elections, notably within the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens.
New York Republican chair Ed Cox stated Zeldin’s shock appointment was “a testomony to President Trump’s dedication to revitalizing the unique mission of the EPA — an company created … underneath President Richard Nixon to guard our nation’s atmosphere.”
The announcement got here after Trump chosen longtime adviser Stephen Miller, an immigration hard-liner, to be the deputy chief of coverage in his new administration and named New York Rep. Elise Stefanik as his alternative for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
Trump has additionally requested Florida Rep. Mike Waltz, a retired Military Nationwide Guard officer and warfare veteran, to be his nationwide safety adviser, based on an individual acquainted with the matter who spoke on the situation of anonymity to debate the matter earlier than Trump made a proper announcement.
Miller is one among Trump’s longest-serving aides, relationship again to his first marketing campaign for the White Home. He was a senior adviser in Trump’s first time period and has been a central determine in a lot of his coverage choices, notably on immigration, together with Trump’s transfer to separate 1000’s of immigrant households as a deterrence program in 2018.
Miller has additionally helped craft a lot of Trump’s hardline speeches, and was typically the general public face of these insurance policies throughout Trump’s first time period in workplace and through his campaigns.
Since leaving the White Home, Miller has served because the president of America First Authorized, a company of former Trump advisers normal as a conservative model of the American Civil Liberties Union, difficult the Biden administration, media firms, universities and others over points akin to freedom of speech and faith and nationwide safety.
Miller drew giant cheers at Trump’s rally at Madison Sq. Backyard in the course of the race’s last stretch, telling the gang that, “your salvation is at hand,” after what he solid as “a long time of abuse that has been heaped upon the nice folks of this nation — their jobs looted and stolen from them and shipped to Mexico, Asia and international international locations. The lives of their family members ripped away from them by unlawful aliens, felony gangs and thugs who don’t belong on this nation.”
As a result of it isn’t a Cupboard place, the appointment doesn’t want Senate affirmation.
On the atmosphere, Zeldin stated in 2016 that he disagreed with then-candidate Trump’s name to eradicate the EPA. He advised a candidate discussion board on Lengthy Island that he noticed “a necessity to enhance the company,” together with bettering its relationship with Congress and deferring to lawmakers on some rules, “which could be very totally different from advocating to eradicate it.”
Miller and Daly reported from Washington. Related Press writers Michael Sisak in New York and Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed to this report.
