{"id":32894,"date":"2026-08-08T17:36:29","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T12:36:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=32894"},"modified":"2026-08-08T17:36:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T12:36:29","slug":"trump-nominates-project-2025-author-to-ig-post-at-interior","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=32894","title":{"rendered":"Trump nominates Project 2025 author to IG post at Interior"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/07\/6a518d7c71e7d4.39272849.jpeg?w=900\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n        <iframe id=\"instaread_iframe\" width=\"100%\" height=\"100%\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Audio Article\" style=\"display:block\" data-pin-nopin=\"true\"><\/iframe>\n    <\/p>\n<p><\/instaread-player><\/p>\n<p>President Trump has nominated a former White House official and Project 2025 author to be the Interior Department\u2019s internal watchdog, a move that critics say could hurt the integrity of the office\u2019s investigations.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/presidential-actions\/2026\/08\/nominations-sent-to-the-senate-e61c\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Trump\u00a0<u>nominated<\/u><\/a>\u00a0Dennis Kirk, one of the authors of a chapter of the conservative policy playbook and a former official in the White House Office of Personnel Management during the first Trump administration, to be the department\u2019s inspector general.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr1_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Mark Greenblatt, a former inspector general (IG) of the department,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/energy-environment\/6015296-project-2025-interior-department-inspector-general\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><u>recently told The Hill<\/u><\/a>\u00a0that having someone with clear political leanings in the role of independent watchdog was unprecedented and could hamper investigations and compromise whistleblowers.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou have whistleblowers who come to the Office of Inspector General to make complaints, including complaints about senior political officials and sensitive political programs, and their names and identities are supposed to be kept confidential,\u201d said Greenblatt, who was\u00a0ousted during a <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/administration\/5109677-trump-inspectors-general-firings-oversight\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><u>Trump administration purge<\/u><\/a>\u00a0of inspectors general last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut if you have an administration mole in the office, all of a sudden, does that information become fair game to the administration?\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In a follow-up text after the nomination was announced, Greenblatt said \u201cthe chilling effect on whistleblowers is real. Who would jeopardize their careers by submitting a complaint about an administration official to an IG who is avowedly aligned with the administration?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He raised similar concerns about inspector general office staff, saying, \u201cWhat if an audit into an administration initiative finds problems \u2014 will the auditors hesitate to report such findings out of fear from their own IG? Will investigators be punished or sidelined if they conduct good-faith investigations into senior administration officials and uncover evidence of misconduct?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This is not Kirk\u2019s first placement within a watchdog\u2019s office.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2025\/06\/05\/tulsi-gabbard-odni-watchdog-signalgate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><u>The Washington Post<\/u><\/a>\u00a0reported that he was also placed inside a watchdog office for the intelligence community last year.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr2_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>His appointment comes as the Interior Department faces particular scrutiny over Trump\u2019s D.C. projects, specifically the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Recent reports indicate that contracts for work on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/05\/08\/us\/politics\/reflecting-pool-trump-contract.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><u>the pool were issued<\/u><\/a>\u00a0through an\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/06\/18\/us\/politics\/trump-donor-contract-reflecting-pool.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><u>atypical no-bid process<\/u><\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum have\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/energy-environment\/6006577-jeanine-pirro-reflecting-pool-burgum-trump\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><u>accused \u201cvandals\u201d of damaging the Reflecting Pool<\/u><\/a>, but U.S. Attorney\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/people\/jeanine-pirro\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><u>Jeanine Pirro\u00a0<\/u><\/a>in the past week moved to drop charges against people accused of damaging it, instead citing a \u201cbotched\u201d installation of a coating at the site.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr3_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>This week, Senate Democrats wrote to the Interior inspector general\u2019s office\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/energy-environment\/6012403-democrats-request-lincoln-memorial-reflecting-pool-investigation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><u>requesting a probe<\/u><\/a>\u00a0into the Reflecting Pool saga.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>Updated at 5 p.m. EDT<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Trump has nominated a former White House official and Project 2025 author to be the Interior Department\u2019s internal watchdog, a move that critics say could hurt the integrity of the office\u2019s investigations.\u00a0 Trump\u00a0nominated\u00a0Dennis Kirk, one of the authors of a chapter of the conservative policy playbook and a former official in the White House&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/07\/6a518d7c71e7d4.39272849.jpeg?w=1280","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}