With Donald Trump fixated on his makeover of Washington, DC, members of a specialized team that responds to wildfires, natural disasters and other emergencies in national parks have been sent to the capital to work on the president’s pet projects.
The members of the National Park Service’s “incident management team” have helped with projects ranging from the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to fountain renovations and removing debris at the East Potomac golf course, according to two Park Service employees and internal documents.
They’ve also compiled highly detailed status reports for Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s office. One longtime employee, who spoke with CNN on the condition of anonymity over fears of retaliation, said those kinds of “operational details” would normally be handled by lower-level managers, not political appointees like Burgum.
“It’s highly unusual,” the employee said. “Political folks have wanted to know even the tiniest details, and it’s always about schedule. Will it be on time?”
“This is not what a typical secretary of the Interior does,” another employee who recently left the department told CNN.
