Trump Says He 'Really Didn't Care' About Drilling Arctic Refuge. Then A Friend Called.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Thursday that he had little interest in opening Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling until a friend “who’s in that world and in that business” called and told him Republicans have been trying to do so for decades. 

It was at that moment, it seems, that it became a competition.

“After that I said, ‘Oh, make sure that’s in the [tax] bill,’” Trump said during a speech at the GOP congressional retreat in West Virginia.

“I really didn’t care about it,” he added. “And then when I heard that everybody wanted it — for 40 years they’ve been trying to get it approved — I said, ‘Make sure you don’t lose ANWR.’”

Trump didn’t say who first urged him to push for opening the refuge’s 1.5 million-acre coastal plain, also known as the 1002 Area.  

The GOP tax bill passed in December includes a provision, introduced  by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), that requires Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke  to approve at least two lease sales for drilling — each covering no less than 400,000 acres — in the refuge’s coastal plain. The region is home to polar bears, moose and caribou, and it has been the subject of a decades-long battle between energy companies and conservationists. 

Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) told a rather different story shortly after Trump’s speech. In an interview with The Washington Post , Sullivan said he and Murkowski briefed the president on several Alaska issues, including ANWR, early last year and were surprised at Trump’s knowledge about the state. Trump’s grandfather reportedly worked on an 1890s route that led to the Yukon gold fields.

“He actually knew a fair amount about Alaska,” Sullivan told the Post. “It’s pretty amazing history. His grandfather was there.”

In his speech Thursday, Trump called the refuge “one of the great potential fields anywhere in the world” and said drilling it is a “great opportunity for Alaska.”

This post has been updated with quotes from Sen. Dan Sullivan about Trump’s relationship with Alaska.