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<p><span style="font-weight:400"><em>The New Yorker</em> had a full-blown meltdown this week over E.P.A. Administrator Lee Zeldin’s unapologetic effort to carry out President Trump’s environmental agenda.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">In the process, the magazine unintentionally elevates Zeldin to folk hero status among the conservative faithful, making him look exactly like what many conservatives have long wanted: an E.P.A. chief who is finally willing to fight aggressive environmental leftism instead of accommodating it.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">Titled “</span><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/05/04/can-the-epa-survive-lee-zeldin" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight:400">Can the E.P.A. Survive Lee Zeldin</span></a>?<span style="font-weight:400">” the article begins by expressing outrage over Zeldin slapping the wrists of 144 insubordinate career E.P.A. bureaucrats who published a public letter excoriating their boss. </span><span style="font-weight:400">The </span><a href="https://www.standupforscience.net/epa-declaration" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight:400">letter</span></a><span style="font-weight:400"> begins by stating, “Declaration of dissent: E.P.A. employees join in solidarity with employees across the federal government in opposing this administration’s policies,” while singling out Zeldin by name for special criticism.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">The letter reads like an Ilhan Omar press release. It alleges that “black communities,” “disabled communities,” “LGBTQIA+ communities,” and the usual mix of leftist special-interest groups are disproportionately impacted by climate change and environmental harm. The letter then chastises Zeldin for cutting back funding and staff dedicated to “environmental justice.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">So much for career bureaucrats in Washington being dispassionate, politically neutral applicators of law and policy.</span></p>
<div id="attachment_1087961" style="width:1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/05/04/can-the-epa-survive-lee-zeldin" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1087961" class="size-large wp-image-1087961" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/TNY-LZ-1024x474.jpg" alt="Screenshot: The New Yorker" width="1024" height="474" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/TNY-LZ-1024x474.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/TNY-LZ-300x139.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/TNY-LZ-768x356.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/TNY-LZ-1536x711.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/TNY-LZ.jpg 1624w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px"/></a></p>
<p id="caption-attachment-1087961" class="wp-caption-text">Screenshot: The New Yorker</p>
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<p><span style="font-weight:400">For the crime of carrying out the elected president’s agenda, Zeldin is accused by career bureaucrats of “undermining public trust,” “promot[ing] misinformation,” and even backing “President Trump’s tariffs.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">The E.P.A. is part of the executive branch of the federal government, and the administrator reports directly to the president. E.P.A.’s role is to implement environmental laws and policies consistent with federal law and the president’s direction.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">By definition, it is aggressively insubordinate for a federal agency’s bureaucratic employees to publicly criticize and issue a “Declaration of dissent” against the boss of their agency.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">How did Zeldin respond? He placed the offending employees on temporary administrative leave, receiving full pay and benefits. In other words, Zeldin gave the insubordinate staffers free vacation time. Reading <em>T</em></span><em><span style="font-weight:400">he New Yorker</span></em><span style="font-weight:400"> article, however, one would think Zeldin sentenced the staffers to hard labor in a gulag.</span></p>
<p><i><span style="font-weight:400">The New Yorker</span></i><span style="font-weight:400"> then goes on to attack Zeldin’s voting record in Congress. As an elected Republican, Zeldin voted “mostly along party lines” rather than joining Democrats in opposition to Republican-supported policies.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">According to the </span><a href="https://heritageaction.com/scorecard/search/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight:400">Heritage Action Scorecard</span></a><span style="font-weight:400">, which tallies how often a member of Congress votes the conservative or liberal position on the most important congressional votes, Zeldin strayed from the conservative Republican position 22% of the time during his years in Congress. By comparison, so-called “conservative” Democrats Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema deviated from the liberal Democrat position just 21% and 10% of the time, respectively.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">Zeldin deviated from the conservative position more frequently than so-called conservative Democrats, and yet <em>T</em></span><em><span style="font-weight:400">he New Yorker</span></em><span style="font-weight:400"> still brands Zeldin a conservative extremist.</span></p>
<p><i><span style="font-weight:400">The New Yorker</span></i><span style="font-weight:400"> then complains that in the September 12, 2025, issue of the official E.P.A. newsletter, Zeldin engages in “mourning” Charlie Kirk’s assassination. To illustrate its outrage, </span><i><span style="font-weight:400">The New Yorker</span></i><span style="font-weight:400"> points out, exasperated, that Zeldin wrote, “In Loving Memory” in the E.P.A. newsletter under a picture of Kirk.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">The fact is, </span><i><span style="font-weight:400">The New Yorker</span></i><span style="font-weight:400">, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and the rest of the leftist cabal are </span><a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-epa-chief-vows-he-wont-take-morality-lessons-dem-senator-after-heated-clash" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight:400">losing their minds</span></a><span style="font-weight:400"> because Zeldin is the most principled and effective implementer of common-sense conservative environmental policy in the history of the E.P.A.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">Under the squishy presidencies of George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, the two Bushes searched for the most environmentally leftist “Republican” they could find. Both cases were a futile effort to win Democratic votes. George H.W. Bush chose William K. Reilly, who previously served as head of the leftist environmental activist group World Wildlife Fund, to lead his E.P.A. George W. Bush chose one of the most liberal self-identified Republican politicians in the country, former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman, to lead his E.P.A.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">Lee Zeldin is unquestionably the greatest conservative administrator the E.P.A. has ever had. </span><i><span style="font-weight:400">The New Yorker</span></i><span style="font-weight:400"> can’t stand that, and its amateurish hit job on a very competent and effective Zeldin only makes them look more toxic.</span></p>
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<p><i><span style="font-weight:400">James Taylor (</span></i><a href="http://www.dailywire.com/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#bef4eadfc7d2d1ccfed6dbdfcccad2dfd0da90d1ccd9" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><i><span style="font-weight:400"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="652f31041c090a17250d0004171109040b014b0a1702">[email protected]</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-weight:400">) is President of The Heartland Institute.</span></i></p>
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<br /><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-lefts-latest-hit-job-on-zeldin-goes-sideways">Source link </a></p>
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The Left’s Latest Hit Job On Zeldin Goes Sideways
