Gray wolves appear to be the latest victim of Donald Trump’s campaign of political retaliation against Colorado after the administration threatened to take control over state efforts to reintroduce the species, according to officials.
Last fall, as Colorado prepared to import 15 wolves from Canada as part of an ongoing species rehabilitation program, a “cease and desist” letter arrived from White House lawyers, according to The Washington Post.
In December, the government doubled down on its threats. “Colorado is prioritizing WOLVES over American ranchers!” according to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum wrote, who claimed the wolves were released without warning “from a pack known to kill livestock.”
“This is a warning: if Colorado does not get control of the wolves immediately, we will!” he added.
The White House previously cited Colorado’s violation of an agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as reason for its intervention, which could potentially completely derail a voter-approved reintroduction of the species into the state ecosystem.
The federal agency threatened to terminate the agreement that grants Colorado management over gray wolves should the state fail to produce a “complete reporting of all gray wolf conservation and management activities that have occurred” since the first release of 10 wolves in December 2023.
The Independent has requested comment from the White House regarding its intervention in the reintroduction program.
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The threats appear to be the latest in a series of politically motivated moves by the Trump administration against the state, including the release of jailed former elections clerk Tina Peters, who is serving a nine-year prison sentence after she was criminally convicted for her efforts to breach sensitive voter data in the wake of the 2020 presidential election.
Trump continues to falsely insist the election was “rigged” and “stolen” from him.
Late last year, Trump claimed to have pardoned Peters, but it was largely symbolic and has no legal effect since presidents can only pardon federal crimes. In a New Year’s Eve post on Truth Social, the president blasted state officials and told them to “rot in hell” over their refusal to release the 70-year-old former clerk.
In recent months, the Trump administration has repeatedly denied Colorado federal funding, including emergency funds following wildfires and flooding in the state, and for federal programs such as the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
The president also vetoed a bipartisan bill to fund a clean water pipeline in southeastern Colorado, claiming the costs are too high, and imperiled hundreds of millions of dollars for child care, food aid and other assistance for poor families in the state.
Last year, the Trump administration also announced that the headquarters of the U.S. Space Command would be moved from Colorado Springs to Huntsville, in Alabama — a decision in which the state’s mail-in ballots system “played a big factor,” according to the president.
Colorado’s attorney general claimed the president was waging a “revenge campaign” against the state, while Democratic Governor Jared Polis accused him of playing “political games.”
In response, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said Trump responds to each request for federal disaster assistance “with great care and consideration, ensuring American tax dollars are used appropriately and efficiently by the states to supplement — not substitute, their obligation to respond to and recover from disasters.”
Jackson added that there is “no politicization” to Trump’s decisions on disaster aid.
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