The Department of Interior and its staff spent Memorial Day weekend advancing multiple priorities of President Donald Trump’s agenda, from making D.C. safe to beautifying America’s National Parks to honoring America’s servicemembers.
Under Secretary of Interior Doug Burgum’s leadership, the department and its parents on the DC Safe Task Force and Park Police fanned out across the capital. “This is historically one of the most dangerous weekends in DC, but not anymore,” the department noted. “Under [Trump], there is ZERO TOLERANCE for crime in our nation’s capital!”
Across Washington, D.C., residents, commuters, and tourists alike have noticed the difference in the capital between the Trump and Biden administrations. The Washington Reporter previously covered how Burgum paved the way for Trump’s gilded age to continue on via major restorations of the Arts of War and Arts of Peace equestrian statues.
Burgum himself noted that “Americans from across the country are gathering at memorials and monuments to honor the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice in service of our country. Their legacy lives on forever in the freedoms we hold dear.”
But for the secretary himself, the weekend carried special meaning. Burgum went to Gettysburg National Military Park, where his “great grandfather, Ferdinand Kilbourne, [] served as a bugler for the 42nd Pennsylvania Infantry, known as the ‘Bucktails,’ one of many regiments honored at Gettysburg.” Park staff rolled out the red carpet for Burgum, and for Kilbourne.
While at the park, Burgum addressed those gathered, invoking the legacy and words of President Abraham Lincoln, who honored the American soldiers who gave their “last full measure of devotion” to preserve the American union.
Burgum was not alone among the department’s top-ranking officials who spent Memorial Day Weekend honoring America’s Civil War heroes. Kevin Lilly, the Acting Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, spent his day at the Antietam Battlefield just a few miles south of Gettysburg.
