May be wrong here, but the value of the land the Feds wanted, may have bee the reason for the concession of more acreage.
According to Dunn, we can make more money on the Federal land hes trading for than we ever made on the land hes trading away.
The point is the theory, Dunn make this arrangement during the Obama administration. If we could just get Trump in on the deal we might be able to get a lot more than twice as much land from the feds.
This could be a backdoor way to reclaim the western territories that a friendly administration might take advantage of instead of hoping congress will surrender the land.
“Commissioner Dunn expressed concern that a delay of 60 days or more from the current time table will push the closing date past the end of his first term and possibly put the exchange in the hands of another land commissioner who may not support the trade. ...”
Seems like this is analogous to not letting Obola appoint a SCOTUS Justice. If this is indeed a good deal, the new Land Commissioner will see it the same way.