Surprise pick: Zeldin to lead EPA

NEW YORK — President-elect Donald Trump on Monday named former New York congressman Lee Zeldin to lead the Environmental Protection Agency as he continues to build out his future administration with loyal supporters.

Zeldin, a Republican who mounted a failed bid for governor of New York in 2022, will “ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses,’’ Trump said in a statement. Zeldin also will maintain “the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet,’’ Trump said.

Trump’s statement misidentified the name of the agency Zeldin was picked to lead, labeling it the Environmental Protective Agency.

Zeldin, who left Congress in January 2023, was a surprising pick for the role. His public appearances both in his own campaigns and on behalf of Trump often had him speaking about issues such as the military, national security, antisemitism, U.S.-Israel relations, immigration and crime.

He was among the Republicans in Congress who voted against certifying the 2020 election results. While in Congress, he did not serve on committees with oversight of environmental policy and had a lifetime score of 14% from the League of Conservation Voters during his eight years in Congress.

In the 2022 governor’s race, Zeldin vowed to reverse a fracking ban imposed by Democrats.

In an interview Monday on Fox News Channel, Zeldin, 44, said that he will seek to ensure that the United States is able to “pursue energy dominance ... bring back American jobs to the auto industry and so much more.’’

He’s excited to implement Trump’s economic agenda, Zeldin said, adding: “I think the American people are so hungry for it. It’s one of the big reasons why they’re sending him back to the White House.”

In 2016 Zeldin pushed to change the designation of about 150 square miles of federal waters in Long Island Sound to state jurisdiction for New York and Rhode Island. He wanted to open the area to striped bass fishing.

Zeldin said at the time that he wanted to restore local control and common sense to fishery management. He later pushed to allow striped bass fishing in an amendment to a federal spending bill. Environmental groups criticized the amendment, which they said risked overfishing in the area.

Trump often pointed to Zeldin’s performance in the 2022 gubernatorial race, when the Republican did far better than had been expected against Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul. While Trump didn’t win New York state in last week’s election, he did far better than he had during previous elections, particularly in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens.

New York Republican chair Ed Cox said Zeldin’s surprise appointment was “a testament to President Trump’s commitment to revitalizing the original mission of the EPA — an agency created ... under President Richard Nixon to protect our nation’s environment.’’

The announcement came after Trump selected longtime adviser Stephen Miller, an immigration hard-liner, to be the deputy chief of policy in his new administration and named New York Rep. Elise Stefanik as his choice for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

Trump has also asked Florida Rep. Mike Waltz, a retired Army National Guard officer and war veteran, to be his national security adviser, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter before Trump made a formal announcement.

Trump will also reach into the the Senate, with the expected appointment of Marco Rubio of Florida as secretary of State, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Republicans have already secured a majority in the Senate, and Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, would choose Rubio’s successor if he’s formally nominated and confirmed by the Senate.

Miller is one of Trump’s longest-serving aides, dating back to his first campaign for the White House. He was a senior adviser in Trump’s first term and has been a central figure in many of his policy decisions, particularly on immigration, including Trump’s move to separate thousands of immigrant families as a deterrence program in 2018.

Miller has also helped craft many of Trump’s hardline speeches, and was often the public face of those policies during Trump’s first term in office and during his campaigns.

Since leaving the White House, Miller has served as the president of America First Legal, an organization of former Trump advisers fashioned as a conservative version of the American Civil Liberties Union, challenging the Biden administration, media companies, universities and others over issues such as freedom of speech and religion and national security.

Miller drew large cheers at Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden during the race’s final stretch, telling the crowd that, “your salvation is at hand,” after what he cast as “decades of abuse that has been heaped upon the good people of this nation — their jobs looted and stolen from them and shipped to Mexico, Asia and foreign countries. The lives of their loved ones ripped away from them by illegal aliens, criminal gangs and thugs who don’t belong in this country.”

Because it is not a Cabinet position, the appointment does not need Senate confirmation.

On the environment, Zeldin said in 2016 that he disagreed with then-candidate Trump’s call to eliminate the EPA. He told a candidate forum on Long Island that he saw “a need to improve the agency,” including bettering its relationship with Congress and deferring to lawmakers on some regulations, “which is very different from advocating to eliminate it.”