Trump taps ex-Rep. Lee Zeldin to lead Environmental Protection Agency

President-elect Trump on Monday tapped ex-Rep. Lee Zeldin to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, one of two New York Republicans named for the incoming cabinet.
Zeldin, the former Long Island congressman who mounted an unexpectedly strong 2022 challenge to Gov. Hochul, will presumably preside over rolling back regulations that Trump says hamstring the oil and gas industry and other businesses.
“We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI,” Zeldin posted on X. “We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water.”
Trump said Zeldin will be laser-focused on ending regulations he says stifle American business.
“He will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards,” the incoming president said.
Zeldin has been a regular fixture at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, leading to speculation that he was jockeying for a spot in the cabinet.
The selection surprised some Trump-watchers who believed he would pick Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist and EPA chief in the first Trump term, or some other person from the oil and gas industry, to lead the EPA.
Trump has repeatedly said that a key goal of his second administration would be dismantling environmental and other regulations.
He dramatically downplays or denies climate change, often joking that dangerous rising sea levels would bring “more waterfront property” to America.
One of his main attack lines at his MAGA campaign rallies was accusing Democrats of colluding to implement what he branded a job-killing “Green New Scam,” a twist on the so-called Green New Deal proposal that liberal Democrats unsuccessfully pushed.
Trump also plans to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Accord, a global agreement that aims to reduce planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.
Zeldin will join Rep. Elise Stefanik, who was nominated hours earlier as Trump’s next UN ambassador, in the MAGA 2.0 cabinet. They served together in the GOP congressional delegation before Zeldin stepped down from his East End seat to run against Hochul.