When President Trump's Cabinet Secretary clashed with Elon Musk this month, Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin revealed where he stands over the billionaire chain saw approach to shrinking the government.
Musk had just swapped Barb with Transport Secretary Sean Duffy and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Things were tense. It was when Zeldin rang to say he wasn't complaining about Musk, according to three people explained at the March 6 meeting.
It was the moment that Zeldin, who evolved from a medium blue state Republican to a full-Maga warrior, was taken to dismantle the institution he eagerly overseen.
Over the past nine weeks, Zeldin withdrew billions of dollars in a Congress-approved Climate Fund, attempting to fire hundreds of employees, recommending the removal of thousands of EPA scientists, and attempting to eliminate dozens of environmental regulations limiting toxic pollution. He was an industry lobbyist and lawyer who fought environmental regulations and met the rank of agency leadership.
He accepts Musk, calling theirs a “incredible partnership” and calls for spending over $50,000 on EPA to be approved by Musk's advisory group, the government's ministry of efficiency. Two members of the Doge team, Katherine Loving and Cole Killian, occupy the office outside Zeldin's wooden panel executive suite on the third floor of the EPA headquarters. A handwritten note was recently taped to the door where I said “Welcome to Doge.”
Zeldin, 45, has cancelled a program focused on marginalized communities disproportionately borne by pollution, including the Louisiana area known as Cancer Alley. He says he wants clean air and water, but scientists are taking steps to say they put both at risk, but is working to ensure that the EPA can never again limit the greenhouse gases that are dangerously heating the planet.
And Zeldin has an active public relations campaign, appearing almost 12 times on Fox News and Fox Business, writing opinions for the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal, and using taxpayer-funded press offices to pull away news outlets that fact-check his claims. He posts camera videos directly to X, demonstrating sophisticated communication skills through several political campaigns.
“He works far more prominently than many of his predecessors in both parties,” said Kevin S. Minori, who worked for the EPA General Counsel Office from Clinton through the Trump administration. “I imagine he's willing to like his boss, look, and do something rewarded.”
The EPA did not respond to several requests to interview Mr Zeldin. In a written statement, Zeldin said the Biden administration used environmental regulations.
He was referring to the strict restrictions imposed by the Biden EPA on regulations designed to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles.
“This administration doesn't support that policy stance and we're doing everything in our power to revitalize this typical American industry,” he said.
Zeldin sought a presidential notice by trying to hold back the $20 billion approved by Congress under the Biden administration for clean energy projects across the country.
He framed the money as a slash fund for democratic issues, citing hidden camera videos made by Project Veritas, a conservative group known for using secret recordings to embarrass political opponents.
In a video made in the last weeks of the Biden administration, EPA employees likened efforts to spend federal money on climate programs to throw away “gold sticks” from Titanics.
Zeldin claims he made the most of the “Gold Bar” line and discovered rampant scams under the Clean Energy Program. Despite requests from federal judges, the Trump administration has not provided evidence of fraud in its program, and several nonprofits that were authorized to receive funds are now suing the administration.
John Podesta, who oversaw the implementation of the Clean Energy Program during the Biden administration, said he followed “very strict rules when selecting grantees. “We follow the law and they break the law,” he said of the Trump administration.
Zeldin's other priorities at the EPA have little to do with the agency's half-century mission to protect the public health and the environment. These include increased use of fossil fuels, rapid tracking permits for energy projects, increased employment in the automotive industry, and forays in artificial intelligence.
Daniel C. Esti, professor of environmental law and policy at Yale Law School, said:
Christine Todd Whitman, who led the EPA under President George W. Bush, called Zeldin “the President and Elon waterboy.”
Zeldin, a lawyer, leukemia survivor and a former Army captain who is now a reserve, is adjacent to the National Wildlife Shelter and comes from a small coastal community on Long Island, struggling with sea level rises related to climate change. During his four years in the New York State Legislature and four terms at Capitol Hill, he was moderate on environmental issues. Zeldin joined the bipartisan caucus to address climate change, supporting solar and offshore wind. He voted for Republican efforts to protect the EPA's budget and limit the agency's ability to curb carbon emissions.
However, he moved to the right in 2022 during a failed bid to the governor of New York. He campaigned to end New York's hydraulic fracturing ban and delay groundbreaking state laws designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“It's very difficult for me to rectify Lee Zeldin, who I know and we're seeing over a decade, that I've seen now,” said Adrien Esposito, executive director of Civil Environment, a Farmingdale environmental group in Zeldin's former council district.
Zeldin would say, “Science is like saying, “Climate change is real and we have to act,” Esposito said. “Now it's as if he's transformed into a completely different person. Was he acting in his first decade in an elected office?”
Zeldin's spokesman, Molly Vaselio, said his values were consistent.
Zeldin's admirers say he is the mainstay. When he ran for Congress, he asked each morning how much money he needed to raise the day, then he achieved his goal.
As an EPA administrator, Zeldin maintains a cyclical travel schedule. Five days after he was sworn in East Palestine, Ohio. This was the site of the 2024 train derailment and toxic chemical spills, and was with Vice President JD Vance. He was later in Los Angeles to investigate the damage caused by the wildfires, and North Carolina visited families rebuilding after a devastating hurricane. Last week he spoke to farmers in the Midwest and met with tribal leaders in the Southwest.
“He's the kind of guy who feels guilty of taking a day off,” said Matt Scott, who worked for Zeldin during his first two terms in Congress.
Zeldin hit his wagon early on to Trump. He was one of the first Republicans in Congress to support Trump in 2016. He led Trump's bullet each defense and raised doubts about the 2020 election results. Trump expressed his appreciation and reposted Zeldin's statement about the blast each procedure on social media, later supporting him for the governor.
Chapin Fey, who managed Zeldin's first campaign in Congress, said Zeldin has a keen understanding of Republican voters and has taken his clues from them as much as the president.
According to a Pew Research Center poll, the EPA is one of the most hated federal agencies among conservatives, with only 32% of Republicans looking at agencies.
“The opponents are going to say this is against the interests of Americans, but Lee believes what he's doing is good for Americans,” Faye said.
So far, Zeldin appears to be accustomed to Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for government overhauls issued by the Heritage Foundation. It recommends deep reductions at the EPA and ends legal authority of agencies regulating carbon dioxide and other gases heating the planet. They also call for weakening the institution's independent science offices.
Mandy Gunasekara, who served as the EPA chief of staff in the first Trump administration and wrote the EPA section for Project 2025, said Zeldin had a good start. “He's very good at telling the public what he's doing and why he's doing it,” she said.
Zeldin demonstrated his political instincts by winning campaigns in both the state and legislative legislative, despite the fact that he feels unprepared among some New York Republicans. And Zeldin lost the governor's race with Democrat Kathy Hochul, who has come closer to victory than Republicans in the past 20 years.
Benji Backer is a Republican environmental advocate and said it was too early to determine EPA administrators, Nature, that its new organization, is nonpartisan.
“He expressed to me that he wanted to be remembered as someone who cares about the environment,” Backer said.
Backer said he believes Americans want wise environmental regulations. The Trump administration is in “burn it on the ground” mode, but Zeldin has to protect the air and water quality, reduce plastic pollution and deal with climate change, and the Trump administration will lose its general support, Backer said.
“My appeal to him will leave your legacy in this,” Backer said. “This is an opportunity to build something truly positive for the environment.”
One of the things that comes naturally to Zeldin is building his own profile, Fay said, and that's happening.
Fay recalls that during Zeldin's governor's campaign he thwarted the incumbent of the Democratic Party on crime and carefully timed his appearance in front of Bodegas and the subway.
“He knew that if there was an afternoon press conference, he would be on B-roll all day long,” Fay said, referring to supplementary films that are used to enhance storytelling and add visual varieties to the newscast.
“Lee is trying to break through the messiness and create her own name,” he said. “One of his political talents hasn't been left behind.”
Jonathan Swann and Maggie Haberman contributed the report.
