December 15, 2018

Ryan Zinke Is Resigning, and the Internet’s Reaction Is Priceless

Wow.

Tom Williams/AP

On Saturday, President Donald Trump announced via Twitter that his Interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, will be leaving his position in the coming weeks.

Zinke’s tenure overseeing the nation’s public lands has been controversial and has resulted in a number of federal investigations. (He reportedly used taxpayer money to purchase a $139,000 door, for example.) A new secretary will be announced next week.

It would be an understatement to say that environmentalists and Democratic politicians were pleased to see Zinke go, and they quickly took to the internet to let him know it. In a tweet, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Zinke was “one of the most toxic members” of Trump’s cabinet. Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.)—an outspoken member of the House Natural Resources and Science committees—called Zinke’s time in office a “never-ending stream of terrible management decisions.” And the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group, tweeted, “Don’t let your $139,000 door hit you on the way out, Zinke!”

Here are some more brutal parting words from his critics:

Even Jonathan Van Ness, of Netflix’s Queer Eye, joined in.

More Mother Jones reporting on Climate Desk

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We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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