As interest in an increasingly ice-free Arctic grows, so has interest in the Trump-appointed chair of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission.
Thomas Dans is a venture capitalist from Texas described as a MAGA influencer and, since December, has chaired the commission, which advises Congress and the president on what to study in the Arctic. Unlike his predecessors, Dans has no background in scientific research.
But what he does have, according to a recent story by ProPublica, is a fondness for Russia and business ties to a Dutch shipbuilder he has championed as a source of new icebreakers for the U.S.
ProPublica reporter Heather Vogell wrote the story and says Dans has also helped advance President Trump's goal of taking over Greenland.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Heather Vogell: He's mostly really just backed Trump, basically in the press. He's talked to the foreign press a good bit. One of the most notable things about the job he has now is that he gets invited to these international conferences all over the world, where there are high-level diplomats and government officials from a lot of different countries, where he's talking about this.
And he's a pretty charming guy. When he's talking, he can, sometimes, he'll say things that definitely have an edge to them, but he's sort of making an effort to make something of a case for strengthening those ties and echoing Trump really on the importance of Greenland to U.S. national security, at least according to Trump, although I've heard experts say that there is not a pressing reason for the U.S. to have control over Greenland, for that reason.
Casey Grove: Speaking of of comments that he's made, you had a quote of his in your ProPublica story, and I just wanted to read that. It says, "We want a peaceful Arctic. We want a peaceful world. Russia and the United States got to get along for that to happen." And another name in your story that's familiar to Alaskans is Fran Ulmer, the former commission chair and the former Alaska lieutenant governor. What did she tell you about that statement, and I guess statements like that that Dans has made?
HV: Right, so basically, not just on Greenland but also on Russia, he's taken these foreign policy stands, and that's not something that the chair of the Arctic Research Commission has typically done, according to Ms. Ulmer and other people I've talked to. This is like a commission that really hasn't made a lot of waves, and they have often been very, somewhat, bipartisan in their approach and somewhat measured in trying to understand what the needs and priorities are for the Arctic.
And he has been making a lot of headlines, making a lot of waves, not just related to Greenland but also Russia. It's one of the more notable things, if you, as I have, listened to a lot of these appearances that he's made internationally, one of the biggest themes to emerge from them is him talking about the need for the U.S. and Russia to reestablish normal relations, which were interrupted when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
CG: A big focus of your story was Dans' relationship with this particular shipbuilder, and I wonder if you could tell me more about that.
HV: Right, he has his own consultancy called Almiranta Strategies, and he'd announced on LinkedIn that he was — before he was appointed — he'd announced that he was very excited to announce he's working with Damen Shipyards Group, which he called one of the world's leading shipbuilders, to bring some of the best icebreakers in the world to the United States. So that was a relationship that he had going into his appointment as chairman.
And, interestingly, that's the sort of relationship that I would say maybe most presidential appointees would need to disclose in ethics forms that are filed when you take one of these offices. But the Arctic Research Commission members and the chair are not subject to the same requirements. The law exempts them and does not consider them to be government employees. So we don't have a ton of visibility into whether he has other potential conflicts of interest.
CG: Interesting, yeah. And as you noted, he has, through through his role with the commission, has access to government information, and that was a concern that folks had. And I had a question sort of pop up as I was reading this: Considering other Trump appointees, is this even considered a conflict of interest anymore?
HV: The White House told us that because the commission members aren't required to file the same forms and are not considered government employees, that Dans does not have a conflict. And I've spoke with some experts on government ethics who said that, unfortunately, there's been a number of senior officials who have had similar situations where they had sort of outside work that was somewhat related to the public roles that they were also playing.
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