Donald Trump Jr. is interviewing Interior secretary choices while helping run the Trump business

Why is Donald Trump Jr. even interviewing people when he's going to help run his father's businesses?

By Matthew Rozsa

Staff Writer

Published December 14, 2016 3:14PM (EST)

 (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Although Donald Trump Jr. plans on helping to manage the Trump business empire while his father is supposedly running the government, that hasn't stopped him from offering his two cents during the interview process for the next government.

According to sources familiar with the Trump team's deliberations, Donald Trump Jr. has sat in on interviews, made calls to candidates, and not held back on his own views regarding the Department of Interior, as Politico reported on Wednesday.

Because Donald Trump Jr. is an avid hunter, his interest in the staffing of the interior post isn't surprising.

"The big joke at Christmas this year was that the only job in government that I would want is with the Department of Interior. I understand these issues," Trump Jr. told WideOpenSpaces.com in November. "It’s something I’m passionate about. I will be the very loud voice about these issues in my father’s ear. No one gets it more than us. Despite what any of the other candidates may say, none of them actually lived that lifestyle. They’ll show up for a hunting photo op, I’ve done those too, but I’d also been hunting for the past week in Iowa beforehand."

This may have pushed the impending Trump administration toward considering candidates from Western states, as CNN reported on Friday. The site also reported that Trump Jr. has elevated Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers into the frontrunner for the interior position. It may also prompt the Trumps to take conservationist positions on issues like the Endangered Species Act and private acquisition of public land that clash with traditional right-wing views on those subjects.

Trump Jr. is also the youngest member of the elite Boone and Crockett Club, a hunting and wildlife conservation organization which was co-founded by Theodore Roosevelt in 1887.


By Matthew Rozsa

Matthew Rozsa is a staff writer at Salon. He received a Master's Degree in History from Rutgers-Newark in 2012 and was awarded a science journalism fellowship from the Metcalf Institute in 2022.

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Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Donald Trump Donald Trump Jr. President Donald Trump Secretary Of Interior