Washington, DC – US President Donald Trump decided to donate his salary since taking office on January 20, to a government service for development work according to the officials.
Opening his daily briefing on Monday (April 4), White House spokesperson Sean Spicer presented a Trump signed check of $78,333.32 to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, in the presence of Tyrone Brandyburg, superintendent of the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in West Virginia.
“We’re going to dedicate it and put against the infrastructure on our nation’s battlefields,” Zinke said. “We’re about a hundred (million) or $229 million behind in deferred maintenance on our battlefields alone,” he added.
Naming Teddy Roosevelt as the source of his inspiration, Zinke told the White House journalists, “The motto now in the Department of Interior, if you go to Yellowstone and you have the opportunity to look at the Roosevelt Arch, it says, inscribed in stone is: “For the benefit and enjoyment of the people.” And that’s our pledge.”
Designating himself as “the steward of our nation’s finest and most majestic holdings,” Zinke elaborated on the holdings. “We span 12 time zones, from the Virgin Islands, all the way to Palau. And within our holdings are 20 percent of the nation’s land. We have 417 national parks, we have 562 federally recognized Indian nations, 567 wildlife refuges, and 221 wilderness areas,” Zinke listed.
The decision to hand over the first part of his salary to the National Park Service comes as his tentative budget shows plans for cuts across the federal government, including the Department of Interior.
Ironically, the budget blueprint that White House sent to Congress last month proposes an 11.7% cut to Interior, which includes the National Parks Service. Congress is yet to approve Trump’s budget plan and the approved budget might be substantially different from what the White House has proposed.
Disclosing that President Trump consulted with White House attorneys before making this decision, Spicer in a lighter vein added, “Ironically, it’s not as easy to give money to the federal government as you think …Except the IRS.”