Donald Trump has nominated Dennis Kirk, a Project 2025 author, to lead the Interior Department’s inspector general office. The post would put him in charge of any investigation tied to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool renovation, including a $16 million project that left the water slimy green and the lining split.
Kirk’s name now moves into a watchdog office that has been empty for eighteen months after Mark Lee Greenblatt was fired last year. The office already has at least five congressional investigation requests sitting in it, and any one of them could land before Kirk if he is installed.
Project 2025 and Interior Department IG
Kirk is not a neutral newcomer to federal management. He was a Project 2025 author, with contributions as associate director that included a training video and an essay on the consequences of “progressive ideology” in the federal workforce. He also held senior roles in the Office of Personnel Management during Trump’s first term.
In Joe Biden’s administration, Biden withdrew Kirk’s nomination to the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board. Earlier in Trump’s second term, Kirk was an adviser to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard while also working in the office of the intelligence community’s inspector general. That history is why his move into the Interior Department IG post is drawing scrutiny beyond the nomination itself.
Reflecting Pool and the watchdog role
The Interior Department’s watchdog would not just be handling paperwork. Trump blamed vandalism for the Reflecting Pool damage, but his handpicked D.C. prosecutor could not make any charges stick and passed the blame to Doug Burgum’s Interior Department. If Kirk is confirmed, he would oversee any eventual inquiry into that renovation and the related questions around who is responsible for the damage.
That overlap has already prompted criticism. Jared Huffman called Kirk a “fake and fraudulent watchdog” and said, “Each and every thing this political puppet does will be in service of Donald Trump,” adding that Kirk helped write the Project 2025 playbook and now sits inside the office charged with rooting out corruption at Interior. Huffman also said, “That same office is weighing serious ethics investigations into senior officials in this administration. 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.”
Greenblatt, Weiss, and what comes next
Aaron Weiss said, “Interior’s watchdog was fired, left vacant for eighteen months, and is now hosting one of the architects of Project 2025.” He added, “At least five investigation requests from members of Congress are sitting in that office right now, and its integrity has been compromised.”
Mark Lee Greenblatt, the former Interior Department inspector general, said that “the chilling effect on whistleblowers is real.” The next step is whether Dennis Kirk is confirmed to run the Interior Department’s inspector general office, a decision that will determine who controls those pending requests and any inquiry into the Reflecting Pool work.
