He is not a stupid man but a man who is knowingly play a role and becoming rich @ it too via the wealthy ..

[Botany]

… people who he really works for. He knows that two people clinging to the ruins of a boat in the
ocean are not a threat to America but he lies about them anyway because that is what he sees as
his job.

BTW years ago I was on the Buffalo River in Arkansas for a wonderful float trip but some of the locals
hadn’t stopped fighting the Civil War. “You are a Yankee.”