The Interior Department enlisting political appointees to bake cookies for Secretary Doug Burgum and his guests and the secretary’s use of a U.S. Park Police helicopter are prompting comparisons to Cabinet drama during President Donald Trump’s first term.
The reports about Burgum are “very reminiscent of Scott Pruitt and Tom Price,” one former Trump administration official said Monday, referring to Trump’s first-term EPA and Department of Health and Human Services leaders, both of whom resigned amid controversy surrounding their use of taxpayer funds.
“This is the same dynamic of the first Trump years,” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity, following reporting that Burgum’s team had instructed political appointees to bake cookies, that Interior appointees acted as servers for a multicourse meal and that Burgum had used a U.S. Park Police helicopter for personal transportation.
Those events, first reported Sunday by The Atlantic, were confirmed to POLITICO’s E&E News by two people familiar with the incidents who were granted anonymity to speak candidly about the department’s internal operations.
