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President-elect Donald Trump has selected his onetime rival in the presidential campaign, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, to lead the Department of the Interior, a crucial position for his plan to change American energy policy.
“Hi Doug,” Trump said from the stage at Mar-a-Lago on the evening of Nov. 14, after telling the crowd the official announcement will be made Friday.
“This is a pretty big announcement right now,” the president-elect said.
“We’re going to do things with energy and with land, interior, that is going to be incredible,” he said.
The Department of the Interior, created in 1849, “protects and manages the Nation’s natural resources and cultural heritage; provides scientific and other information about those resources; and honors its trust responsibilities or special commitments to American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and affiliated Island Communities.”
The agency includes the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Park Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Interior controls 20 percent of all land in the United States and handles matters related to the United States’ insular areas, which include various Pacific islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
It also includes the Bureau of Land Management and the Bureau of Ocean Management, both critical to energy policy for an administration whose incoming head vowed while campaigning to “drill, baby, drill.”
Currently led by Deb Haaland, the department was headed by David Bernhardt under the first Trump administration, who was seen as a contender for the role again.
Before Bernhardt served as interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, now a Montana congressman, held the position.
Burgum’s appointment to a Cabinet-level position was seen as all-but-inevitable after he lost out to Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) in the competition to become Trump’s running mate.
Burgum said Trump referred to him as “Mr. Secretary” on the phone call discussing that decision.
The speculation around Burgum, governor of an oil- and natural gas-rich Midwestern state, had centered on both the Department of the Interior and the Department of Energy.
In a Nov. 7 social media post congratulating Trump on his election win, Burgum wrote: “North Dakota’s energy, agriculture and technology economy is poised to thrive in the coming era where private sector innovation, not overreaching government regulation, is seen as the key to solving our biggest challenges and realizing our fullest potential.”
Burgum’s net worth is thought to exceed $1 billion. Prior to serving in government, the North Dakotan stewarded the growth of an accounting software firm, Great Plains Software. It was eventually sold to Microsoft, which Burgum then joined.
Born in Arthur, North Dakota, Burgum attended North Dakota State University, where he earned his undergraduate degree. He went on to earn an MBA from Stanford University.
He was part of a crowded field of Republican candidates for president this cycle, dropping out in December 2023, before the first caucus and primary after failing to qualify for the third presidential debate.
In a November 2023 interview with Epoch Times sister media NTD, he listed energy among his top concerns, alongside the economy and national security.
“As a governor, I have a front-row seat,” he said, going on to list initiatives from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Land Management. Both entities sit under the interior secretary.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
By Nathan Worcester (Epoch Times)
