Apex predator: The tiny island of Lānaʻi is usually a pretty mellow place, even with billionaire owner Larry Ellison’s jet-setting friends occasionally jetting in.

So no wonder the regulars at the Blue Ginger were agog when a small fleet of black SUVs and a large presence of security guards showed up this weekend.

It turns out the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., is on the island for a couple of days of hunting. Lānaʻi has the world’s highest density of free-ranging axis deer and is considered a prime hunting destination. 

Trump Jr. — who is stirring speculation for a 2028 presidential run — arrived Saturday. The Blog hears he actually brought the SUVs with him, along with his bodyguards.

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A two-day Lānaʻi axis deer hunt with Trump Jr. fetched thousands of dollars at the annual Dallas Safari Club banquet and auction. A photo used to promote the experience showed Trump Jr. dressed in head-to-toe camouflage. No word on who the lucky winners are.

But the hunt is organized by Pineapple Brothers, an axis deer and mouflon sheep hunting outfitter run by a former Navy SEAL named Jack Carr (he also wrote “The Terminal List,” one of The Blog’s favorite Prime shows) and a retired FBI agent named Jon Dubin. The hunting outfitter features Trump Jr. prominently on its Instagram account.

Trump Jr. is an avid hunter and publisher of Field Ethos, the print magazine and outdoor adventure brand he co-founded in 2021. The magazine’s website promoted a Lānaʻi hunting excursion in a feature film called  “Fish, Hunt, Shoot, Lānaʻi” in October 2023. “A melting pot of talent, booze, fish scales and deer hides,” the film description reads. 

Lānaʻi is owned by Larry Ellison, a tech entrepreneur and the fourth richest person in the world. Ellison, who has an estimated net worth of $192 billion, purchased a 98% stake in the island in 2012 for $300 million. In addition to owning nearly 90,000 acres, Ellison owns a third of the housing, the water utility, the only newspaper and a pair of luxury resorts that are Lānaʻi’s economic engine. 

The island was once owned by James Drummond Dole, who transformed it in the 1920s into the world’s most productive pineapple plantation.

Sylvia Luke signs some bills: With her boss once again traveling this week — to Washington, D.C., for business and then a little vacay — Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke is once again in charge. On Monday she took the opportunity to do something she has never done before: sign legislation into law.

It makes sense: House Bill 934 (now Act 201) sets up Hawaiʻi’s State Broadband Office within the Department of Accounting and General Services and funds digital navigators — that is, smart people at public libraries on the islands of Hawaiʻi, Maui, Molokaʻi, Kauaʻi and Lānaʻi.

As LG, Luke oversees Connect Kākou, which is tasked with “closing the digital divide” so that every resident has access to the internet. Amazingly, nearly 1 in 10 do not have connectivity at home. 

Luke also signed House Bill 1052 (Act 102), which permits the Public Utilities Commission to provide free telecommunications access to time-sensitive information — weather alerts and health advisories — for individuals with print disabilities.

The LG’s other interests, besides filling in for the gov, are placing more kids into preschools and the authentication of state documents that are used overseas, which are called “apostilles.”

And speaking of the governor, a friend of The Blog’s was on the Hawaiian Airlines flight to Boston and the Jet Blue connector to Washington, D.C., on Sunday and spotted Green in the business class section — his two giant bodyguards in the row behind him, she reports.

Green, who is back on speaking terms with The Blog (yay), told us recently he is paying his own way this trip because he plans to combine it with vacation and other non-official state business. And it’s his first time going to “Hawaii on the Hill,” a three-day affair sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce Hawaiʻi and the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority that generally attracts high-level politicos and their staff who scarf down all sorts of Hawaiʻi delicacies. Green was expected to be on a panel discussing emerging technologies and give a presentation at the “Taste of Hawaiʻi” part of the event.

You can catch the governor when he’s back on island at Civil Beat’s June 30 event featuring a discussion with environmental reporter Marcel Honoré about the new green fee. For more information and to register, click here.

Beetlemania: The invasion of the coconut rhinoceros beetle on Oʻahu has prompted state and county agencies to launch a new campaign intended to create a barrier of treated palms in urban Honolulu. Civil Beat wrote about the tactic just last month.

Crews from the City and County of Honolulu’s Division of Urban Forestry this week began injecting some 800 palms within city parks from Kaka‘ako through Ala Moana with Xytect insecticide. The Hawai‘i Department of Agriculture is also involved.

The CRB treatments complement injections to palms at Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve and around Diamond Head, including Lē‘ahi and Makalei beach parks. Treatments last year were applied along the Leeward, Northern and Windward coasts of the island.

Moving on up: Tuesday was a busy day for press releases. Here are a couple.

University of Hawaiʻi President Wendy Hensel has appointed Vassilis Syrmos to serve as interim provost of UH Mānoa. He replaces Michael Bruno, who returns to the faculty after having served as provost since 2019. Once a new provost is appointed, Syrmos will return to his current role as vice president for research and innovation.

Meantime, the Hawai‘i Community Foundation, a major philanthropic organization, has named well-known philanthropy leader Terry George as its new CEO and president effective Aug. 1. He most recently served as CEO and president of the Harold K. L. Castle Foundation.

And Michelle Kaʻuhane assumes immediately the position of COO and executive vice president at the foundation. She previously worked at the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement and the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.

George is replacing Micah Kāne who is going off to be the CEO of Parker Ranch on the Big Island.