Project 2025 Co-Author Dennis Kirk Reportedly Placed Inside Interior Department Watchdog Office

The Interior Department's inspector general office has reportedly gotten a new addition: Dennis Kirk, a co-author of Project 2025's chapter on gutting and restructuring the federal bureaucracy.

Kirk worked in the White House Office of Management and Budget during President Trump's first term. He helped write the Project 2025 blueprint's recommendations to "decentralize and privatize" the federal government "as much as possible," according to Truthout. Last year he was placed inside the inspector general's office for the U.S. intelligence community, a move that also drew criticism at the time.

Now Kirk has reportedly landed inside the Interior Department's IG shop. The office is currently facing calls from Democratic lawmakers to investigate alleged corruption among top Interior officials.

Who's raising the alarm, and what they're saying

Rep. Jared Huffman of California, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, said Kirk's reported appointment was "a fraud on the office and a fraud on the American people."

"Dennis Kirk is a fake and fraudulent watchdog," Huffman said in a statement Wednesday. "Everyone should have their eyes wide open. Each and every thing this political puppet does will be in service of Donald Trump. This man helped write the Project 2025 playbook for seizing control of the federal workforce."

Huffman specifically pointed to issues he wants investigated at Interior, including a gold-slathered statue project and a "botched Reflecting Pool renovation," and said Kirk sitting inside the IG office undermines any real accountability on those fronts.

Mark Greenblatt, the previous Interior Department inspector general who Trump fired in January 2025 as part of a broader purge of inspectors general across the federal government, also weighed in. Greenblatt said reports of Kirk's installation "should concern anyone who values independent government oversight."

"Placing someone with that background inside an inspector general's office raises serious questions about the independence of one of the federal government's most important accountability institutions," Greenblatt said in a statement posted to his website. He added that the move "does not stand alone" but follows a pattern of actions, including the dismissal of inspectors general, proposed budget reductions to oversight offices, and efforts to redefine the role of inspectors general themselves.

The current acting Interior Department IG is Caryl Brzymialkiewicz, who took over after Greenblatt's firing. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, a close ally of the fossil fuel industry, runs the department Kirk would now be helping to police.

Earlier this year, Huffman called for an IG probe of an Interior official over potential conflicts of interest tied to a family financial stake in a lithium mine. Separately, the ethics watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington alleged Interior may have skirted federal contracting rules in awarding renovation contracts for the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and Lafayette Park fountains to Trump associates without normal competitive bidding.

What the Interior Department says

Asked for comment by the investigative outlet Public Domain, a spokesperson for the Interior IG office said only: "we do not have a comment on this matter, which relates to personnel issues." The response leaves basic questions unresolved, such as what Kirk's actual title and authority within the office are, and whether he has any say over which investigations move forward.

The fair counterargument

Presidents have always had leeway to shape executive branch personnel, and Trump's team would likely argue Kirk is qualified, has federal budget experience from OMB, and that stocking agencies with people who share the administration's deregulatory philosophy is exactly what elections are supposed to produce. There's no law requiring inspectors general staff to be ideologically neutral in some abstract sense, and previous administrations of both parties have installed allies in oversight-adjacent roles.

It's also true that no evidence here shows Kirk has quashed or will quash any specific investigation. Nobody has filed a complaint alleging he's blocked a probe. This is, right now, a personnel placement that critics find alarming based on Kirk's ideological record and the timing, not a documented case of obstruction.

But the inspector general system was built so that internal watchdogs wouldn't be beholden to the political leadership they're supposed to scrutinize. Greenblatt's own firing as part of a broader purge of inspectors general, along with proposed budget cuts to oversight offices and efforts to redefine what IGs are supposed to do, is part of the same pattern he describes.

What happens next

No formal investigation into Kirk's appointment has been announced, and the Interior IG office hasn't clarified his exact role or scope of authority. Whether Democrats can force further scrutiny, or whether Interior discloses more about what Kirk is actually doing inside the watchdog office, remains an open question.