NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump on Monday named former New York congressman Lee Zeldin to lead the Environmental Protection Agency as he continues to build out his future administration with loyal supporters.
Zeldin, a Republican who mounted a failed bid for governor of New York in 2022, will “ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses,'' Trump said in a statement. Zeldin also will maintain "the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet,'' Trump said.
Trump's statement misidentified the name of the agency Zeldin was picked to lead, labeling it the Environmental Protective Agency.
Zeldin, who left Congress in January 2023, was a surprising pick for the role. His public appearances both in his own campaigns and on behalf of Trump often had him speaking about issues such as the military, national security, antisemitism, U.S.-Israel relations, immigration and crime.
He was among the Republicans in Congress who voted against certifying the 2020 election results. While in Congress, he did not serve on committees with oversight of environmental policy and had a lifetime score of 14% from the League of Conservation Voters during his eight years in Congress.
In the 2022 governor’s race, Zeldin vowed to reverse a fracking ban imposed by Democrats.
In an interview Monday on Fox News Channel, Zeldin, 44, said that he will seek to ensure that the United States is able to "pursue energy dominance ... bring back American jobs to the auto industry and so much more.''
He's excited to implement Trump’s economic agenda, Zeldin said, adding: "I think the American people are so hungry for it. It’s one of the big reasons why they’re sending him back to the White House.”
In 2016 Zeldin pushed to change the designation of about 150 square miles of federal waters in Long Island Sound to state jurisdiction for New York and Rhode Island. He wanted to open the area to striped bass fishing.
Zeldin said at the time that he wanted to restore local control and common sense to fishery management. He later pushed to allow striped bass fishing in an amendment to a federal spending bill. Environmental groups criticized the amendment, which they said risked overfishing in the area.
Trump often pointed to Zeldin’s performance in the 2022 gubernatorial race, when the Republican did far better than had been expected against Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul. While Trump didn’t win New York state in last week's election, he did far better than he had during previous elections, particularly in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens.
New York Republican chair Ed Cox said Zeldin's surprise appointment was "a testament to President Trump’s commitment to revitalizing the original mission of the EPA — an agency created ... under President Richard Nixon to protect our nation’s environment.''
The announcement came after Trump selected longtime adviser Stephen Miller, an immigration hard-liner, to be the deputy chief of policy in his new administration and named New York Rep. Elise Stefanik as his choice for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
Miller is one of Trump's longest-serving aides, dating back to his first campaign for the White House. He was a senior adviser in Trump’s first term and has been a central figure in many of his policy decisions, particularly on immigration, including Trump's move to separate thousands of immigrant families as a deterrence program in 2018.
Miller has also helped craft many of Trump’s hardline speeches, and was often the public face of those policies during Trump's first term in office and during his campaigns.
Since leaving the White House, Miller has served as the president of America First Legal, an organization of former Trump advisers fashioned as a conservative version of the American Civil Liberties Union, challenging the Biden administration, media companies, universities and others over issues such as freedom of speech and religion and national security.
Miller drew large cheers at Trump's rally at Madison Square Garden during the race's final stretch, telling the crowd that, “your salvation is at hand,” after what he cast as "decades of abuse that has been heaped upon the good people of this nation — their jobs looted and stolen from them and shipped to Mexico, Asia and foreign countries. The lives of their loved ones ripped away from them by illegal aliens, criminal gangs and thugs who don’t belong in this country.”
Because it is not a Cabinet position, the appointment does not need Senate confirmation.
On the environment, Zeldin said in 2016 that he disagreed with then-candidate Trump’s call to eliminate the EPA. He told a candidate forum on Long Island that he saw “a need to improve the agency,” including bettering its relationship with Congress and deferring to lawmakers on some regulations, “which is very different from advocating to eliminate it.”
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump shakes hands with former Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., during a roundtable at the Drexelbrook Catering & Event Center, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024, in Drexel Hill, Pa. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
FILE - Former Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., speaks at a rally in Concord, N.H., Jan. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
Stephen Miller speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Lititz, Pa., Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
PRAYAGRAJ, India (AP) — Hindus venerate rivers, and none more so than the Ganges. The faithful believe that a dip in its waters will cleanse them of their past sins.
Wherever other sacred rivers flow into the Ganges, the benefits of bathing at the confluence on auspicious days increases manyfold. A devotee can hope to begin a journey to achieve Hindu philosophy’s ultimate goal — the release from the cycles of birth and death.
The most propitious of these days occur in cycles of 12 years. When the time comes for Prayagraj, in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, millions flock to the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers during a festival called the Maha Kumbh Mela.
It has become the largest such gathering of humans anywhere on Earth.
In 2025, between Jan. 13 and Feb. 26, about 400 million people, more than the population of the United States, are expected to participate in the festival.
Planning for such an incredible number of pilgrims can be a logistics nightmare, but the local government has some experience.
It successfully organized a smaller version of the festival called Ardh Kumbh, or Half Kumbh, in 2019, when 240 million visitors were recorded, with about 50 million taking a ritual bath on the busiest day.
Planning for even larger numbers in 2025, the state government has formed the Maha Kumbh Mela area in Prayagraj into a separate administrative district for four months.
As the 2025 festival draws closer, construction of the temporary district is in full swing. Divided into 25 sections and spreading over 40 square kilometers (15 square miles), it will have housing, roads, electricity and water, communication towers and 11 hospitals.
Hundreds of workers and machines are crowding the river’s edge. Working around the clock, they are laying water and drainage pipes, building 30 pontoon bridges (up from 22 in 2019), and compacting sand dredged from the river to enlarge the banks along the 12-kilometer (7-mile) -long stretch where pilgrims will gather to bathe.
Scaffolding for tents, some of which will house as many as 25,000 pilgrims, is being erected.
About 20,000 workers are responsible for keeping the area and its more than 150,000 temporary toilets clean.
About 50,000 security personnel — a 50% increase from 2019 — are being trained in how to keep the festival safe.
“The mela can be a very stressful environment for the personnel, so we are teaching them stress management and training them in soft skills to interact better with the pilgrims,” said Senior Superintendent of Police Rajesh Diwedi, who is overseeing security operations.
More than 2,500 cameras, some powered by AI, will send crowd movement and density information to four central control rooms, where officials can quickly deploy personnel to avoid stampedes.
Many devotees will stay for more than a month, observing austerity, giving alms and bathing at sunrise every day.
Sanitation workers walk to their work area on the banks of the Ganges river in preparation for the upcoming Maha Kumbh Mela, one of the world's largest religious festivals, in Prayagraj, India, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Police officials test a remote-controlled lifebuoy on the Ganges river, in preparation for the upcoming Maha Kumbh Mela, one of the world's largest religious festivals in Prayagraj, India, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Workers lay metal sheets to build a temporary road on the banks of the Ganges river in preparation for the upcoming Maha Kumbh Mela, one of the world's largest religious festivals, in Prayagraj, India, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Women make clay stoves to be sold to the devotees who will be staying on the banks of the Ganges river, in preparation for the upcoming Maha Kumbh Mela, one of the world's largest religious festivals, in Prayagraj, India, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Stray dogs relax on a street next to a wall freshly painted as part of a beautification drive, in preparation for the upcoming Maha Kumbh Mela, one of the world's largest religious festivals, in Prayagraj, India, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Workers tar a road in preparation for the upcoming Maha Kumbh Mela, one of the world's largest religious festivals, in Prayagraj, India, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Workers put up electric cables and install surveillance cameras on the banks of the Ganges river in preparation for the upcoming Maha Kumbh Mela, one of the world's largest religious festivals, in Prayagraj, India, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
A Hindu holy man prays sitting next to an earthmover moving sand on the banks of the Ganges river, in preparation for the upcoming Maha Kumbh Mela, one of the world's largest religious festivals, in Prayagraj, India, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, center, in saffron robe, inspects a control center of the municipal corporation in preparation for the upcoming Maha Kumbh Mela, one of the world's largest religious festivals, in Prayagraj, India, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Firefighters on motorcycles decorated with balloons ride through the town in a public relations exercise before the upcoming Maha Kumbh Mela, one of the world's largest religious festivals, in Prayagraj, India, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Workers paint the railings of a bridge over the Ganges river, in preparation for the upcoming Maha Kumbh Mela, one of the world's largest religious festivals, in Prayagraj, India, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Workers carry a slab of stone to be used for the beautification of a street in preparation for the upcoming Maha Kumbh Mela, one of the world's largest religious festivals, in Prayagraj, India, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Workers make a floating platform on the Ganges river from interlocking plastic cubes, right, next to a finished one supporting changing rooms for the VIPs, in preparation for the upcoming Maha Kumbh Mela, one of the world's largest religious festivals, in Prayagraj, India, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Workers repair a boat next to a pile of interlocking plastic cubes meant for building a floating jetty on the Ganges river in preparation for the upcoming Maha Kumbh Mela, one of the world's largest religious festivals, in Prayagraj, India, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Workers build a mural in preparation for the upcoming Maha Kumbh Mela, one of the world's largest religious festivals, in Prayagraj, India, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Workers build replicas of the twelve Jyotirlingas, important temples spread across India dedicated to Hindu god Shiva, enclosed by a shape representing the map of India, in preparation for the upcoming Maha Kumbh Mela, one of the world's largest religious festivals, in Prayagraj, India, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Portable toilets are kept on the banks of the Ganges river before installation, in preparation for the upcoming Maha Kumbh Mela, one of the world's largest religious festivals, in Prayagraj, India, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Workers build pontoon bridges over the Ganges river in preparation for the upcoming Maha Kumbh Mela, one of the world's largest religious festivals, in Prayagraj, India, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Workers prepare to join a section of a pontoon bridge over the Ganges river in preparation for the upcoming Maha Kumbh Mela, one of the world's largest religious festivals, in Prayagraj, India, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
A crew inspects overhead power cables meant for railway engines as others work on an overhead bridge in preparation for the upcoming Maha Kumbh Mela, one of the world's largest religious festivals, in Prayagraj, India, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Workers build a pontoon bridge over the Ganges river in preparation for the upcoming Maha Kumbh Mela, one of the world's largest religious festivals, in Prayagraj, India, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
An earthmover works on the banks of the Ganges river preparing the site for the upcoming Maha Kumbh Mela, one of the world's largest religious festivals, in Prayagraj, India, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Hindu holy men, or Sadhus, inspect a site for their camp on the banks of the Ganges river for the upcoming Maha Kumbh Mela, one of the world's largest religious festivals, in Prayagraj, India, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
