A few months into the second Trump term, REI's new CEO has publicly disclaimed the company's endorsement of Doug Burgum as Interior Secretary and apologized.
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‘We Made a Mistake’: Outdoor Sports Retailer REI Retracts Endorsement of Doug Burgum, Launches Initiative to Protect Public Lands
Sarah RumpfApr 10th, 2025, 12:28 pm
Screenshot via REI on Instagram.
When outdoor recreation co-op REI signed onto a letter endorsing President
Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of the Interior, then-North Dakota Gov.
Doug Burgum, it drew shock and outrage from many of the retailer’s loyal customers. Now, a few months into the second Trump term, REI’s new CEO has publicly disclaimed that endorsement and apologized.
The January
letter was sent to Sen.
Mike Lee (R-UT) and Sen.
Martin Heinrich (D-NM) as the chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources from the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable, a coalition of outdoor recreation organizations, retailers, and interest groups.
The letter praised Burgum as “an avid outdoorsman who hunts, snowmobiles, sails, skis, rides horses, side by sides and more” who had a “history of support for outdoor recreation, the outdoor recreation economy, and the protection of public lands and waters,” “commitment to supporting outdoor recreation as an economic driver and a meaningful way to connect communities,” and “long-time admiration of Teddy Roosevelt, sophisticated understanding of business, and commitment to public-private partnerships.”
“The success of the $1.2 trillion outdoor recreation economy relies on the Department of the Interior managing, safeguarding, and maintaining America’s public lands and waters, infrastructure, and increasing access so we can pass on the lifelong benefits of time in nature to our children and all future generations,” the letter continued. “ORR will seek to work diligently with the next Administration to advance a sustainable and thriving outdoor recreation economy for the benefit of all Americans. We appreciate the opportunity to highlight our support for Governor Burgum’s nomination and look forward to working with you and your staff in the 119th Congress.”
On Wednesday, REI posted on its social media accounts a short video message from
Mary Beth Laughton, who was announced as the next president and CEO earlier this year after previous stints at companies that included Nike, Sephora, and Athleta, and a few years on REI’s board. According to a LinkedIn
post by Laughton, she began as president on Feb. 3 and CEO on March 31.
In Laughton’s message, posted on Facebook, Threads, and Instagram, she noted that she was not in charge when the letter was sent, but had been “a committed member of the REI community for decades.”
Laughton said she was there to discuss an “urgent” topic: “Our public lands are under attack…[f]rom the gutting of national park staff to expanded threats of drilling or even selling off our public lands, the future of life outdoors has never felt so uncertain.”
She explained that REI had signed onto the Burgum endorsement letter “in an effort to have a seat at the table and continue our outdoor advocacy,” but that was a “mistake”:
Laughton did not cite any specific action by the Trump administration or the Department of the Interior under Burgum as the impetus for the revoked endorsement, but on Tuesday, Burgum had been present in the Oval Office when Trump signed a group of
executive orders regarding the coal industry.
According to a
report by the AP, the orders included citing presidential emergency authority “to allow some older coal-fired power plants set for retirement to keep producing electricity to meet rising U.S. power demand amid growth in data centers, artificial intelligence and electric cars,” and directing Burgum’s agency “to identify coal resources on federal lands, lift barriers to coal mining and prioritize coal leasing on U.S. lands” — reversing a moratorium put in place during the Obama administration that paused approvals of coal leases on federal lands.
The
website cited by Laughton lists several initiatives the company encourages customers to support, including contacting congressional representatives to urge them to pass the
Public Lands in Public Hands Act, which would ban the sale of national parks, monuments, forests, wildlife refuges, and other federally-owned public lands and waters to private buyers.
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