In his continuing quest to remind the public that Ryan Zinke is, in fact, the “Reincarnated Roosevelt”, the embattled Interior Secretary took the bold move of tattooing his proclaimed conservation icon on his neck earlier this week. The unprecedented decision for a cabinet member to rock a neck tat is sending shockwaves throughout the traditional, clean-cut capital.
The neck tattoo is a smaller version of the Roosevelt profile Secretary Zinke had tattooed on his fly casting arm back in 2014 when he ran for the Montana at-large Congressional district. That summer he paraded his new tat and abysmal double haul across Big Sky Country in an effort to appear like a rugged Montana outdoorsman. According to the Secretary, in his new role he has fewer opportunities to wear short sleeves, so he took this bold step to ensure that you could not look at him without seeing Roosevelt.
Despite growing criticism from the outdoor community that Ryan is no Roosevelt, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership applauded the Secretary’s decision to adorn his neck with their namesake in a complimentary tweet.
TRCP is more or less alone in their response as a litany of tweets from other conservation organizations express disgust with this decision and are widely panning it as a desperate ploy to repair a fraudulent reputation the Secretary spent years painstakingly cultivating. Several organizations even suggested that he might need to get a face tat soon if he continues on his path of public lands pillaging.
