Despite the controversies surrounding him, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has continued to pitch himself for more prominent jobs in Trump’s administration, a former White House official said. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo Energy & Environment Trump hedges Zinke support amid probes

President Donald Trump offered less-than-effusive praise Monday for embattled Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, while saying he might not “be happy” with the outcomes of the investigations into Zinke’s behavior.

“I'm going to look at any reports, I'll take a look,” Trump told reporters when asked whether he was troubled by recent news reports about Zinke, which have included a potential Justice Department criminal investigation and growing scrutiny of a land deal involving the chairman of Halliburton. “Certainly, I would not be happy with that at all. But I will take a look. But he has done a very good job as secretary."


Trump’s words fell short of the glowing tributes he offered last spring to a similarly troubled Cabinet member — Scott Pruitt, then the leader of the Environmental Protection Agency — whom he credited with achieving “Record clean Air & Water” and saving taxpayers “Billions of Dollars.” And they come amid growing signs that Zinke’s hold on his job may be as tenuous as it was for Pruitt, who resigned in July under multiple inquiries into his spending, tight relations with lobbyists and reliance on government perks.

Allies inside and outside the administration have begun to distance themselves from Zinke. But even as those problems mushroomed, a former White House official told POLITICO on Monday, Zinke continued to pitch himself for more prominent jobs in Trump’s administration — including as a possible replacement for Pruitt at EPA.

The White House and the Interior Department did not respond to further questions Monday, although the former official said Trump still likes Zinke’s bluntness and charisma.

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Even so, people in the industry said Monday that they’re starting to assume his time at Interior will be limited.

“It seems to me like this is one of those walking dead situations and there’s something there that hasn’t come out yet,” said Dan Eberhart, a Republican donor and CEO of oilfield services company Canary LLC.

Some in the industry also said the horse-riding former Montana congressman has proved mildly disappointing as Interior secretary — that while he came into the job as a somewhat known commodity, he turned out to have fewer energy contacts and less knowledge than they would have hoped.

“Even people out [West] are, like, we don’t actually know him that well,” said a person in the industry who works with companies that operate on federal land Interior oversees, who requested anonymity to avoid jeopardizing clients' business and relationships with the agency. “But he looks like us, he talks likes us, he wears the same clothes as us and he came in pretty fast and picked some good people. There’s a perception that he worked really quickly, and for a while there was a reputation that he had the ear of the president.”

Multiple sources described the Navy veteran as an ambitious Cabinet member who has long been eyeing his next gig as he tries to implement Trump’s “energy dominance” agenda, chiefly by removing regulations on drilling, mining and fracking. Allies have said he also may be interested in running for higher office in coming years — and the Montana governor’s seat will come up in 2020.

The investigations may pose an unknown threat to all that. Those include one probe that, according to news reports, the Interior Department’s inspector general referred late last month to the Justice Department, which could weigh whether to bring criminal charges.

The IG’s office and DOJ have declined to comment on the referral. But potential subjects include a Montana real estate development that involves a Zinke-created foundation and Halliburton Chairman David Lesar, whose company stands to gain from Interior’s decisions to expand onshore and offshore drilling. POLITICO first reported on that deal, as well as on a meeting that Zinke had with Lesar at Interior Department headquarters last year before discussing the development project over dinner.

Zinke continued to contact a Whitefish city planner about the land in question even after becoming secretary, a potential breach of his ethics pledge, The Washington Post reported Monday based on a newly released email.

The IG has also been examining Interior’s refusal to grant a casino license to two Native American tribes in Connecticut, a move that followed lobbying from MGM Resorts International and its supporters in Congress.

A recent inspector general report also found that Zinke tried to make his wife, Lola, a “volunteer” at Interior so she could travel with him for free at department expense. In addition, Zinke took political donors on official tours and cost taxpayers $25,000 by bringing a security detail on a vacation with his wife to the Mediterranean region, according to the report.

Lola Zinke’s frequent travel on official Interior business had caused staffers other problems.

In one previously unreported incident from May 28, 2017, Interior travel scheduler Timothy Nigborowicz canceled a charter flight scheduled for the next day to take Zinke from McKinley National Park Airport to Anchorage, according to emails POLITICO obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request.

In the emails, Nigborowicz said no reason was given for the cancellation. But an email from Interior employee Tim Fox a month later says it was because of issues getting clearance for Zinke’s wife to board the flight.

“I was at the [Interior’s Alaska regional director] meeting yesterday and learned that the flight was cancelled because Sec. Zinke’s wife was going to travel with him and there was no way to do that with the [solicitor’s office] approval,” Fox wrote to department flight coordinator Shari Moultrie in a June 2017 email. “They ended up driving which added about 6 hours to the trip.”

Interior spokeswoman Faith Vander Voort dismissed the email as “just gossip between two people who weren’t involved in the decision-making process.”