(CNN) – President-elect Donald Trump nominated North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum to be his next…
(CNN) – President-elect Donald Trump has nominated North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum to be his next secretary of the Department of the Interior.
Trump revealed his selection during a gala at his Mar-a-Lago resort Thursday night, apparently changing his mind in real time about when to make the announcement while pointing to Burgum in the audience.
“I hope to make the formal announcement, although this is a big announcement right now. Actually, he’s going to run the Department of the Interior, and he’s going to be fantastic,” Trump said at the America First Policy Institute gala.
North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum speaks at a campaign rally on Monday, Nov. 4, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. (Credit: Paul Sancya/AP/File)
Burgum is a second-term conservative governor who ran against Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. Burgum avoided criticizing the former president during the campaign, but did not immediately endorse him when he suspended his campaign last December.
In this role, Burgum will inherit the agency, which oversees natural resources, public lands and Indian affairs, from Secretary Deb Haaland, a former member of Congress who made history as the first Native American cabinet secretary.
Burgum, a former Microsoft executive, previously told CNN that he would not consider serving as Trump’s running mate or in a future Trump cabinet.
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“Happy to do many other things. I had 30 fabulous years in the private sector. A lot of opportunities there,” he said last August. Finally, he was one of several prominent Republicans who received vice presidential screening materials from the Trump campaign before the former president chose Ohio Sen. JD Vance as his running mate.
CNN reported earlier this week that discussions about Burgum’s future in the next administration had shifted in recent days toward the role of an “energy czar” who would lead an interagency process to advance Trump’s energy agenda. in line with the president-elect’s strategy of appointing “czars” who can avoid long confirmation hearings and start working from day one. Now selected for a Cabinet-level position, Burgum would need Senate confirmation.
So far, Trump has selected more than 20 candidates for his administration, several of them controversial, including Fox News host Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense, former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Resources, and Florida Republican Representative Matt Gaetz as Attorney General.
–CNN’s Kit Maher, Veronica Stracqualursi and Kayla Tausche contributed to this report.
