Pod Force One – Lee Zeldin Bombshell! Biden’s EPA Slush Fund Exposed

Host: Miranda Devine (New York Post)
Guest: Lee Zeldin (EPA Administrator)
Date: August 20, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode features an incisive conversation between Miranda Devine and Lee Zeldin, the newly appointed EPA Administrator in the second Trump administration. The core focus is Zeldin’s efforts to overhaul the EPA after what he describes as widespread waste, fraud, and abuse during the Biden administration — particularly a “$20 billion climate slush fund” funneled through questionable NGOs. The episode also delves into Zeldin’s personal journey, his leadership philosophy shaped by his military service, and his perspective on New York politics, blending personal anecdotes with policy revelations.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Overhauling the EPA: Mandate and Management

• Acknowledging Economic Pain

  • Zeldin emphasizes that the Trump administration’s EPA is driven by the economic concerns voiced by voters.
    “The American public…want an agency like the EPA to be cognizant of that economic pain, to do something about it, to apply common sense.” [00:29]

• Operational Challenges

  • Drastic under-attendance during remote work era: building often at less than 8% occupancy; leading to Zeldin’s push for “accountability and oversight over every dollar.”
    “On the operational side…in 2024, on Mondays and Fridays only averaged about 5 to 8% attendance inside of this headquarters building.” [00:29]
  • Downsizing real estate, closing underused spaces like the EPA museum.
    “We are condensing our real estate footprint now to save taxpayer dollars and more like eliminating the EPA museum, which basically just about nobody went to.” [01:33]

2. The Alleged $20 Billion ‘Climate Slush Fund’

• Discovery and Investigation

  • Zeldin dramatically characterizes a Biden-era rush to distribute funds through outside NGOs, with little accountability, and describes pressure from Senate Republicans to investigate.
    “This video comes out…it was of a Biden EPA employee who was talking about how the agency was tossing Gold bars off the Titanic…rushing to get billions of dollars out the door before Inauguration Day.” [02:40]

  • Funds (from the Inflation Reduction Act) routed via an outside bank through eight “pass-through entities” (NGOs), often led by former Democratic officials or donors.

  • The EPA intentionally gave up oversight of funds past the first pass-through.
    “When the money goes through the prime recipients to others, in many cases also pass throughs, EPA no longer is a party of the account control agreement. EPA is losing oversight by design. Intentionally…” [04:07]

• Waste and Self-Dealing Examples

  • Power Forward Communities (linked to Stacey Abrams):

    • Jumped from $100 (2023) to $2 billion (2024) in grants despite lack of basic budgeting experience.
    • Executives had “excessive” salaries: CEO at $800K, COO at $450K.
    • 22 employees earning over $150K; “salaries appear excessive” (EPA reviewer).
      “The salary structure for top officers seems high for nonprofit, or rather high enough that it merits some explanation...” [07:02]

  • Appalachian Community Capital:

    • Received $500 million; spent less than $4.5 million.
    • Planned $215M for 600 EVs ($358K per vehicle) and $105M for 700 charging stations ($150K each). Reviewer: “seems too high.”
      “This is $358,333 per EV vehicle,” ... “$150,000 per charging station seems too high.” [08:58]

  • Zeldin claims such questionable examples are “endless.”

    • “If you challenged me to spend this entire interview to continue to go through additional examples of waste and abuse, I could actually sit here for the entire interview and just keep going…” [09:46]

3. Accountability, Recovery, and Prosecution

• Recovering Funds

  • Zeldin says the process is in the courts; 120-day grant closeouts should allow the Treasury to claw back unspent funds.
    “I'm proud to be able to do my part with this great team here to...find the gold bars and we're bringing them back on board.” [05:13]

• Criminal Investigation

  • DOJ, FBI, and the Inspector General are involved, but Zeldin draws distinction between “proving criminality” and acting on waste.

    • “Our burden on behalf of the American taxpayer isn’t to prove every element of a criminal offense beyond a reasonable doubt.” [06:02]

  • Frustration with media and political opponents downplaying findings.

    • “Every time I provide more evidence of waste and abuse, [media] dig even deeper in saying there’s no evidence…” [06:46]

• Direct Quote on Media and Political Pushback
  “The American public, they're fed up with the bullshit. … They don't want us to just sit here and play nice and tolerate it. If we have the facts on our side, why should we have any amount of apology or regret for actions we're taking on behalf of the American taxpayer?” [10:45]

4. Environmental Justice and NGO Funding Critique

• Zeldin’s Stance:

  • Argues left-wing activist groups were funded to train other activist groups to lobby for further funds, rather than directly resolving environmental issues.
  • Example: $50M grant to Climate Justice Alliance, which “says that climate justice runs through a free Palestine.”
    • “In some cases, some of the environmental justice grants that we canceled, there would be money that would go to an activist group. They would spend the money on training another activist group to come...advocate to Washington for money to that activist group to go out and be activists.” [13:05]
  • Strong belief in spending “directly on remediating the environmental issue,” regardless of political leaning.

• Grant Cancellations

  • Zeldin claims to have canceled $22 billion in grants in his first 100 days.
    “Our annual operating budget here at EPA is about $10 billion. In my first 100 days as administrator, we canceled over $22 billion worth of grants. And we're proud of it.” [15:16]

5. Navigating a Politicized EPA

• Staff Political Leanings

  • Noted that nearly all EPA staff donations went to Democrats.
  • Zeldin takes a pragmatic, legalistic approach; expects career staff to accept policy changes as part of administration shifts.
  • Supreme Court’s Loper Bright decision (overturning Chevron doctrine) seen as curbing agency overreach.

• Leadership Philosophy

  • Draws parallels to military service: respecting lawful orders, adapting to “pendulum swings” with new administrations.
  • Zeldin meets daily with career staff, says “a large majority” accept that regulations will be reconsidered.
    “Sometimes your candidate will win an election, sometimes it won’t …a lot of these regulations ... are going to swing because of how far the left went to try to test their powers.” [17:36]

6. Policy Priorities: Clean Air, Clean Water, Economic Growth

• Shifting Away from Pure “Climate” Focus
  • Trump’s EPA pivots back toward traditional environmental issues: air, land, water.
    • “The first pillar of powering the great American comeback at the Trump EPA is clean air, land and water for all Americans.” [20:38]
  • Prioritizes economic realities over “airy, fairy idea” of climate.
    • “The Biden EPA would say you can only protect the environment. It’s impossible to protect the environment without destroying the economy. It's a wild concept that we don't accept.” [21:43]
• Energy Philosophy
  • Advocates for “baseload power”: coal, gas, nuclear.
  • Criticizes state policies (esp. NY, CA) restricting pipelines, gas extraction, or banning internal combustion vehicles.

7. Perspective on New York Politics

• Loss in Governor’s Race and NYC’s Direction
  • Insights on the city’s ongoing “punitive” tax approach and resulting exodus of residents and businesses.
  • Warns that “billionaires are leaving New York City for good,” diminishing the tax base.
    “They’re not putting New York City in timeout…these people are gone.” [27:04]
  • Urges all Americans to remain active, informed voters; recounts “jump master” paratrooper analogy on shared responsibility.

Personal Journey and Leadership

8. Military Service and its Influence

• Paratrooper Experiences

  • Shares vivid stories of his first and last jumps, training, and learning leadership principles (e.g., “work hard, play hard, take care of your people” from Gen. David Petraeus).
    “Some of the best ideas we've gotten for cost savings have come from some of the most junior members of the agency… as a junior officer at the Department of Defense, I probably had some of the best ideas…” [29:17]

• Deployment in Iraq

  • Discusses the dangers, complex detainee ops, and trauma of war during the pre-surge era.
  • Tells story of helping his unit learn culturally appropriate tactics, and of gathering evidence vital for legal accountability.

9. Personal Resilience — Family, Faith, and Adversity

• Twins’ Premature Birth and NICU Ordeal

  • Shares a deeply emotional account of his twins being born extremely premature while he was in Iraq; the fight for survival, medical risks, and the role of prayer and medicine.
  • Powerful moment:
    • “The doctors sat Diana and I down and recommended that we discontinue treatment and let her go… she is able to see, walk, talk, and she doesn't have cerebral palsy… She's in college, about to start her second year…” [48:45–50:34]

• Impact on Faith & Perspective on Abortion

  • Surviving ordeal deepened Zeldin’s faith and influenced his pro-life perspective.
    • “I've had an opportunity to see life in the second trimester, and it was beautiful. My favorite picture in the world is a photo with one of my daughters. It's a black and white photo, and her entire hand is smaller than the top one third of my finger.” [52:30]

• Interfaith Marriage

  • Lee (Jewish) and Diana (Mormon) “made it work;” their daughters experienced both faiths.

10. Upbringing and Early Lessons

• Four-Parent Household

  • Raised as an only child with divorced and remarried parents; had to “groom and raise myself,” acted as a “referee” early—possibly sparking political instincts.

• Family in Law Enforcement

  • Father (fraud investigator), stepfather (NY state trooper), stepmother (probation officer), mother (teacher/former security)—imbuing him with a keen sense of observation and integrity.

• Early Detective Training

  • Childhood anecdote: father had him observe and describe details of an eyeglass store as part of an investigation.

11. Advice for Success

• Stay Grounded and Humble
  • Zeldin believes humility and perspective are the keys to progress:
    • “The most important thing is to stay grounded. … Don't ever forget where you come from… There's so many other important life lessons… but the most important thing is to stay grounded.” [59:38]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On confronting bureaucracy/media:
  “If we have the facts on our side, why should we have any amount of apology or regret for actions we're taking on behalf of the American taxpayer?” [11:05]
• On public service:
  “We want people in government to fight for them to be a good steward of their tax dollars. … They don't want us to just sit here and play nice and tolerate it.” [10:45]
• On faith and family resilience:
  “We accepted prayers in probably about 16 different religions...we took them all.” [51:02]
• On growing up as a moderator:
  “It's kind of hard to explain, but that might have been my earliest lessons of politics and…moderating and trying to work through conflict was right there at home.” [56:40]
• On staying humble:
  “I have no ego…every day I try to keep my… feet more firmly planted than they were the day before. It's important to stay humble, stay grounded. …Don't ever forget where you come from.” [59:38]

Timestamps for Notable Segments

• EPA Operational Challenges: [00:29–02:20]
• $20 Billion Climate Slush Fund Exposed: [02:20–05:54]
• How Funds Were Disbursed/Lost Oversight: [04:00–06:02]
• Examples of Waste and Abuse: [07:02–09:46]
• Philosophy on Environmental Justice & Grant Cancellations: [12:03–15:18]
• EPA Staff Culture & Navigating New Leadership: [15:35–19:34]
• Policy Pivot: Clean Air/Water vs. Climate Ideology: [20:02–23:28]
• On NY Politics and Socialism: [23:28–28:55]
• Military Service and Leadership Lessons: [29:17–34:01]
• Iraq Deployment & Family Crisis: [43:04–50:34]
• Perspectives on Life, Faith, and Abortion: [51:02–52:58]
• Family History and Upbringing: [54:55–59:29]
• Advice to Young People: [59:30–61:43]

Summary:
This episode offers a sweeping yet intimate look at how Lee Zeldin envisions EPA reform, exposes what he calls systemic abuses under previous leadership, and demonstrates his drive for fiscal discipline, informed by both his military service and personal resilience. The show is a blend of policy, political commentary, and life lessons, laced with colorful stories and a determined, no-nonsense tone.