President Donald Trump nominated Project 2025 author and former political appointee Dennis Kirk to lead the Interior Department’s inspector general office, raising concerns about the independence of the watchdog that has been asked to review the troubled Reflecting Pool renovation.
Kirk, who was nominated Friday, previously had been working within the office of the inspector general of the intelligence community while serving as an adviser to then-Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard as of last year. At the time, lawmakers and watchdog advocates raised concerns that his dual roles blurred the lines between Gabbard and the office investigating the use of the Signal messaging app to discuss a pending U.S. military strike.
The Interior Department’s inspector general’s office recently has been receiving inquiries from Democrats to investigate the troubled Reflecting Pool renovation. Democrats also have sought investigations into senior administration officials’ potential conflicts of interest. One of those officials, Interior Associate Deputy Secretary Karen Budd-Falen, acknowledged in a video that she was involved in changes to grazing policies that benefited ranching businesses such as her family’s, The Washington Post previously reported.
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Rep. Jared Huffman (California), the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, called Kirk a “fake and fraudulent watchdog” and a “political puppet” who shouldn’t be in the office overseeing ethics and corruption investigations that involve senior administration officials. “It’s no surprise the White House suddenly wants its own man inside the one place that Trump’s cronies still have reason to fear,” Huffman said in a statement.
A spokesman for the inspector general’s office declined to comment on Kirk’s role. White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said in a statement that “Kirk has consistently demonstrated loyalty to the rule of law during his long career within government.” The Interior Department and Kirk did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Kirk co-authored a key section about the federal workforce for Project 2025, the blueprint for Trump’s second term. In the first Trump term, Kirk held senior roles at the Office of Personnel Management and was nominated to serve as chairman of the Merit Systems Protection Board, though he faced steep opposition from unions that said he lacked experience, and his nomination was withdrawn by President Joe Biden.
Mark Lee Greenblatt, a former Interior inspector general who was fired amid Trump’s purge of inspectors general early last year, called on the Senate to reject Kirk’s nomination. Greenblatt, who was nominated by Trump in his first term, said Kirk’s involvement would damage the credibility of the office’s investigations amid controversy related to recordkeeping and chill whistleblowers’ openness to speaking out.
“This is a particularly fraught moment with respect to the Interior Department in light of the very public allegations that are flying around regarding the Reflecting Pool and the arch,” Greenblatt said in an interview, referring to the monument Trump wants to build near Arlington National Cemetery. “I would think that the White House and President Trump would want an independent review, an independent actor in that position, because otherwise those reports won’t have credibility.”
The Center for Western Priorities, a conservation advocacy organization, also condemned Kirk’s role and called on Congress to use its subpoena power to compel records after Politico reported that Interior Department staffers had routinely shredded documents and used disappearing Signal messages.
“Interior’s watchdog was fired, left vacant for 18 months, and is now hosting one of the architects of Project 2025,” said the center’s executive director, Aaron Weiss. “At least five investigation requests from members of Congress are sitting in that office right now, and its integrity has been compromised.”
Aaron Schaffer and Jake Spring contributed to this report.
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