Trump names Lee Zeldin to lead EPA, Stephen Miller to be deputy chief of policy

NEW YORK — President-elect Donald Trump on Monday named former Rep. Lee Zeldin to lead the Environmental Protection Agency as he continues to build out his future administration with loyal supporters.

Trump, in a statement, said Zeldin, who mounted a failed bid for governor of New York in 2022, would “ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet.”

Zeldin, who left Congress in 2023, 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.

In 2016 he 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, which is allowed in state waters but banned in the federal area.

Trump often pointed to Zeldin’s performance in the 2022 gubernatorial race — where the Republican did far better than had been expected against Gov. Kathy Hochul — when he insisted he could be competitive in his Democratic home state. While Trump didn’t win New York, he did far better than he had during previous elections, particularly in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens.

The announcement comes after Trump selected longtime adviser Stephen Miller, an immigration hard-liner, to be the deputy chief of policy in his new administration and named Rep. Elise Stefanik as his nominee for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

Confirming the Miller appointment, Vice President-elect JD Vance posted a message of congratulations Monday on X and said, “This is another fantastic pick by the president.” The announcement was first reported by CNN.

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 hard-line 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.

He was also a frequent presence during Trump's campaign this year, traveling aboard his plane and often speaking ahead of Trump during the pre-shows at his rallies.

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.”

“We stand here today at a crossroads,” he went on, casting the election as “a choice between betrayal and renewal, between self-destruction and salvation, between the failure of America or the triumph of America.”

Because it is not a Cabinet position, the appointment does not need Senate confirmation.