The America First Policy Institute, a think tank aligned with Donald Trump, threatened to expose EPA employees critical of the president, internal agency records show.
Last year, a policy analyst with the organization offered to share certain EPA staffers’ names and positions with Administrator Lee Zeldin, an email obtained by POLITICO reveals. The group discovered the employees as part of a yearslong project to unmask the career civil service that conservatives credit with frustrating the policy goals of the first Trump administration.
EPA staff have feared blowback from Trump after their emails were subject to public records requests from right-leaning operatives since he last left the White House. AFPI’s attempt to disclose their identities could have led to the next step of that project — retribution against the president’s “deep state” critics.
“I thought I’d bring this to your attention, considering the impact it could have on current agency operations,” said Jacob Sagert, then with the think tank’s Center for American Freedom, in the March 31, 2025, email to Zeldin. “Many officials openly discussed opposition to the Administration’s policies, political appointments, and celebrated the results of the 2020 election.”
