As Pete Hegseth makes his first visit to the Pacific region as secretary of defense, another Trump cabinet head also paid a visit to Hawaiʻi.
Lee Zeldin, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, toured the Maui burn zone and the Red Hill underground fuel storage facility on Oʻahu this past weekend.
Zeldin very quietly slipped in and out of town, touring the area and meeting briefly with state health officials.
It was Hegseth's visit that grabbed the headlines as he touched down Monday amid the Signal war-plan breach — controversy over the use of the encrypted messaging app to discuss sensitive war plans in Yemen with high-level appointees, which unknowingly included The Atlantic editor-in-chief.
That breach of security protocol overshadowed the EPA visit. But various groups, an anti-military organization, and environmental advocates like the Oʻahu Water Protectors used the visit to demonstrate at the gates of Pacific Fleet Command on Tuesday afternoon.
HPR talked to Healani Sonoda-Pale, who sits on the Red Hill Community Representation Initiative. It formed after the fuel spill that contaminated the Navy's drinking water system. HPR also talked to Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi Director Wayne Tanaka about Hegseth's and Zeldin's visits to Hawaiʻi.
This interview aired on The Conversation on March 26, 2025. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m.
