Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Tuesday pushed back against a photo circulating on the internet that purported to show him with a hunted elephant amid backlash on a decision to lift a ban on importing elephant trophies.
“The only thing I’ve hunted in Africa is terrorists,” Zinke tweeted.
The only thing I’ve hunted in Africa is terrorists. #GotEm #NoBaggingLimit pic.twitter.com/9ez0lcuq5L
— Secretary Ryan Zinke (@SecretaryZinke) November 21, 2017
The Trump administration said last week it determined a ban on the import of trophies from elephants hunted in Zimbabwe and Zambia was no longer necessary, reversing an Obama-era ban on such imports.
After the department said the ban would be lifted, a photo began circulating on social media purporting to show Zinke posing with a dead elephant. Zinke is not the man in the image, and the photo was first posted in 2016.