President-elect Donald Trump announced Thursday that he plans to select North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum as his nominee for secretary of the interior.
"We have a big announcement, and I won’t tell you, it’s — I won’t tell you the name of his, the exact name," Trump teased in his remarks at Mar-a-Lago, his home in Florida, for an America First Policy Institute event. "I think he’s an incredible person, got an unbelievably wonderful wife named Kathryn. So, I won’t tell you — his name might be something like 'Burgum.' Burgum.
"He’s from North Dakota. He’s going to be announced tomorrow for a very big position," Trump added before he pointed to and waved at Burgum.
Moments later, he announced that Burgum is "going to head the Department of Interior, and he's going to be fantastic."
On Friday, Trump released an official statement on Burgum, noting that the governor would concurrently serve as the chair of the new National Energy Council, "which will consist of all Departments and Agencies involved in the permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation, transportation, of ALL forms of American Energy," and will therefore have a seat on the National Security Council.
In a Friday statement, Burgum praised the creation of a National Energy Council.
"The National Energy Council will foster an unprecedented level of coordination among federal agencies to advance American energy," Burgum added in his statement. "By establishing U.S. energy dominance, we can jumpstart our economy, drive down costs for consumers and generate billions in revenue to help reduce our deficit."
Shortly before Trump’s Thursday remarks, NBC News asked Burgum whether there have been conversations about his being nominated for interior secretary.
“There’ve been a lot of discussions about a lot of different things,” he told reporters.
“Nothing’s true till you read it on Truth Social,” he added.
Burgum was a familiar presence on the campaign trail stumping for Trump, who had considered selecting him as his running mate before he settled on JD Vance.
Burgum, who has a business background, sold a software company to Microsoft in 2001 for $1.1 billion in stock. He then worked at Microsoft as a senior vice president through 2007 and continued in other business ventures in real estate and venture capital.
He was first elected governor in 2016 and won re-election in 2020. North Dakota implemented term limits for governors in 2022 that restrict any governor from running for a third term, but that measure did not apply retroactively to Burgum, who was already in office.
Burgum opted not to seek a third term in 2024, and his second term is set to end when his successor, Rep. Kelly Armstrong, assumes office in December.
He ran a long-shot presidential campaign and dropped out of the race in December 2023 after he failed to qualify for the November 2023 primary debate.
