US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order directing federal officials to evaluate whether gray wolves should lose their protections under the Endangered Species Act. The order gives Interior Secretary Doug Burgum three months to determine whether gray wolves and Mexican gray wolves have recovered enough for the federal government to de-list them and contemplate making it easier to authorize killing the animals.
Gray wolves were systematically trapped and killed across the United States through the late 19th and early 20th centuries to protect livestock, driving them to the brink of extirpation. While wolves are currently managed by states in parts of the northern Rocky Mountains and listed as threatened in Minnesota, a 2022 federal court order keeps them protected under federal law across most of the lower 48 states. Ranchers continue to view the animals as a threat to their profit margins, and Trump's directive forms part of a broader series of measures aimed at supporting American beef production.
The potential removal of protections has drawn strong concern regarding Mexican gray wolves, a rare subspecies reintroduced to Arizona and New Mexico in 1998. At the end of 2025, officials counted 319 animals, just under the recovery plan threshold that requires an average of over 320 animals for four consecutive years before de-listing can be considered. Conservation advocates, including Michael Robinson from the Center for Biological Diversity, emphasize that Mexican gray wolves also face severe risks from a lack of genetic diversity and warn that premature de-listing would trigger legal challenges based on scientific evidence.
Environmental organizations sharply criticized the executive order, arguing that directing federal agencies to pressure states into rolling back protections undermines the legislative framework created by Congress to keep wildlife recovery decisions insulated from political influence. During the signing ceremony, Trump suggested ranchers were already allowed to shoot wolves threatening their safety, though killing protected wolves remains a federal crime across most of their range.