The 2016 Presidential election is more than half year away and many voters are already fatigued by the seemingly relentless bombardment of political ads. That said, voting is not only a cherished right of freedom, but imperative for those who enjoy hunting, fishing, camping, and understand how important sportsmen are to conservation. We know that food doesn’t just come from the grocery store and that someone (us) has to pay the huge cost of preserving and policing wildlife populations.
Donald Trump is one of the most controversial politicians to run in recent years, and Field & Stream and Outdoor Life sat down with him to ask him the kinds of information you want and need to know.
AL: Let me ask you this—back to conservation and access for hunters’ rights to get on public land. One of the things that we’ve found is so much of this campaign—not your campaign, but this election cycle—has talked about cutting budgets and reducing the federal government. And what the budget is for managing public lands right now is at one percent. In 1970, it was two percent. Would you continue to push that number down for wildlife conservation or would you look to invest more?
DT: I don’t think there’s any reason to. And I will say—and I’ve heard this from many of my friends who are really avid hunters and I’ve heard it from my sons who are avid hunters—that the lands are not maintained the way they were by any stretch of the imagination. And we’re going to get that changed; we’re going to reverse that. And the good thing is, I’m in a family where I have—I mean, I’m a member of the NRA, but I have two longtime members of the NRA. They’ve been hunting from the time they were five years old and probably maybe even less than that. And they really understand it. And I like the fact that, you know, I can sort of use them in terms of—they know so much about every single element about every question that you’re asking. And one of the things they’ve complained about for years is how badly the federal lands are maintained, so we’ll get that changed… [continued]
