The White House can’t keep its own story straight about Trump’s national monuments review
The Interior Secretary may or may not have turned in his homework on time
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is due to submit his recommendations about the future of 27 national monuments to President Trump on Thursday.
But has he actually turned in his work to the White House? Reporters have spent all day trying to get a straight answer. With the 101st anniversary of the National Park Service looming on Friday, would Secretary Zinke and President Trump try to erase parks the very same week?
Carolyn Lochhead with the San Francisco Chronicle was the first to get confirmation on Wednesday…
…but noted that the secretary wasn’t calling governors in the affected states to brief them on his recommendations:
Lochhead also appeared to get confirmation from the White House, in a now-deleted tweet:
But the White House then contradicted itself with other reporters, including The Washington Post’s Juliet Eilperin:
All of this left reporters wondering what’s actually going on with the monuments report, including the New York Times’ Lisa Friedman, who noted that Zinke is on his way to Montana to talk about wildfires, not national monuments:
So where does that leave us?
By executive order, Zinke’s report is due on Thursday. The secretary has given roses to a half dozen monuments already, but left the fate of more than 20 others uncertain. Now it appears he’s trying to talk about anything other than his attack on national monuments, as he heads to Montana on Thursday, then celebrates the National Park Service’s 101st anniversary on Friday. All this comes on the heels of his romantic getaway to the Mediterranean, which he took instead of visiting any of the 19 monuments he had not yet been to as part of his review.
Unless Interior and the White House come clean quickly, it appears the national monuments review will end as it began — as a publicity stunt, ignoring the pleas of 2.7 million Americans who told Secretary Zinke and President Trump in no uncertain terms to leave their national monuments alone.
