President Trump signed an executive order aimed at helping cattle ranchers combat livestock losses, giving Interior Secretary Doug Burgum 90 days to determine whether the gray wolf and the Mexican wolf have met recovery criteria for delisting or downlisting under the Endangered Species Act.
If the criteria are found to have been met, Burgum has been directed to begin the delisting process. Officials would then meet with state authorities to encourage similar measures and looser standards for killing wolves.
At an Oval Office event with ranchers, Trump appeared unclear on the order’s immediate effect, asking, “But you can shoot them as of today?” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins corrected him, laughing as she said Burgum would have “to do a little magic” first.
An estimated quarter of a million wolves once roamed across North America before European settlers launched eradication campaigns that continued into the 20th century. During his first term, Trump delisted gray wolves but left Mexican wolves — a more endangered subspecies — protected; Friday’s order covers both. The Biden administration had fought in court to preserve the earlier delisting but lost in 2022, reversing the policy.
The Wolf Conservation Center estimates around 7,600 gray wolves remain in the contiguous US, while the Mexican Wolf Interagency Field Team counted 317 Mexican wolves at the end of 2025.
