Trump Official Says It's Okay to Destroy Endangered Species Because We Can Just Clone Them

A Trump official is coming after the real menace plaguing America: those gosh-darn freeloaders moping around the endangered species list.

On Monday, interior secretary Doug Burgum suggested that the list, which is maintained by the US Fish and Wildlife Service and is a cornerstone of the nation's conservation efforts, needs cleaning out. We should celebrate removing species, not adding them, he said.

"The Endangered Species List has become like the Hotel California: once a species enters, they never leave," wrote Burgum in a statement on X. "In fact, 97 percent of species that are added to the endangered list remain there. This is because the status quo is focused on regulation more than innovation."

His reason for why is stupefying: the advent of "de-extinction" technology — and in particular the latest blockbuster claim from the startup Colossal that it's resurrected the long dead dire wolf — which has supposedly exposed how the conventional wisdom behind conservation efforts is outdated. 

"The revival of the Dire Wolf heralds the advent of a thrilling new era of scientific wonder, showcasing how the concept of 'de-extinction' can serve as a bedrock for modern species conservation," Burgum proclaimed. 

Now, Burgum adds, we should start thinking how it could strengthen biodiversity protection efforts by using genetic technology to ressurect dying species.

That's a pretty bold claim. And the thing about the "dire wolves" brought back from extinction is that they're not really dire wolves. They're modern gray wolves born from gene-edited embryos designed to imitate certain dire wolf traits. (In fact, some research suggests that the dire wolf isn't even an ancestor of the gray wolf, Science notes.)

Colossal, which has also vowed to bring back the dodo, used the same trick to create "woolly mice" possessing fur that resembled the shaggy pelt of the wooly mammoth. DNA samples from the extinct creatures were used to identify the genes targeted in the edits, but no actual dire wolf or wooly mammoth genetic material was implanted into the modern analogs.

"The reality is we can't de-extinct extinct creatures because we can't use cloning — the DNA is just not well enough preserved," Nic Rawlence, an associate professor and director of the Palaeogenetics Laboratory at New Zealand's University of Otago, told the Washington Post.

"What Colossal is trying to do is genetically engineering animals to look like extinct creatures," Rawlence added. "They look cute and cuddly but... they're not a dire wolf."

In short, hinging the future of thousands of endangered species whose survival already sits on a knife's edge on an unproven technology that is yet to come anywhere near to delivering on its premise is, charitably put, extremely reckless.

That's assuming Burgum, whose environmental track record is pretty suspect, has the critters' best interests in mind in the first place. The former North Dakota governor is cozy with the oil and gas industry, not to mention close friends with several petroleum executives. Burgum also endorsed Trump's plan to fire back up coal plants that were shuttered by the Biden administration — a plan that finally came to fruition this week.

More on wildlife: Behold This Bonkers Photo of a 2,800-Pound Rhino Dangling Upside Down From a Helicopter

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