President-elect Donald Trump will name North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum to head up the Department of Interior. Many Alaskans had been speculating the job of secretary of Interior would go to Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who has been close with Trump.
Trump revealed his choice at an event at Mar-a-Lago and said it would be official on Friday.
Although Dunleavy was a logical pick, it’s unclear why Trump went a different direction. The job of the secretary of Interior impacts Alaska more than any other state, since so much of Alaska is owned by the federal government.
Some are saying Dunleavy might be in line for the Secretary of Energy, but there are rumors that former Gov. Sarah Palin might get that job. She, too, is close with Trump.
Doug Burgum took office as the 33rd governor of North Dakota on Dec. 15, 2016. It was his first run for governor and he is term-limited out this month.
Under his leadership, North Dakota now has the nation’s third-highest GDP per capita, ranks second in energy production per capita, and has some of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation.
Burgum briefly ran for president, but his candidacy did not catch fire. Instead, he led his state to become a national leader in innovation, energy, agriculture, and technology.
“His efforts to drive engagement with the five tribal nations with whom North Dakota shares geography have greatly improved state-tribal relationships through collaboration and addressing challenges and opportunities with understanding and mutual respect,” his bio says at the official page of the governor.
Gov. Burgum has championed the largest income tax relief package in state history in 2023.
He has been a leader in transforming education and equipping students with the essential skills for life and learning, preparing graduates for a choice-ready future in college, career or the military. He stands with those in recovery and, with First Lady Kathryn Burgum, is pushing a positive movement to eliminate the shame and stigma of the disease of addiction and support behavioral health, mental health and addiction by focusing on the foundations of well-being.
Maybe Trump knows Mike more than we give him credit.
Not an ounce of fight in him.
Maybe you know less than you claim. Re elect Dunleavy
I know what I know.
You do know he’s term limited?
Re-Elect Dunleavy to which office? He is termed out as he can only serve two consecutive terms as Governor.
Palin just needs to go away.
Palin was the only reason a lot of us voted in 2008 for Songbird McCain (with the hopes his age and health would put him to pasture early). But after seeing video of her about she and Peltola being part of the AK sisterhood (or something like that) I can see why she may not be so well liked.
And take the Cowardly Lion with her.
Dunleavy went up against President Trumps Army Corp. of Engineers permit denial for the proposed Pebble mine by suing the Federal Government on behalf of foreign owned and Security’s Fraud convicted Pebble Ltd., which goes against Trumps America first policy.
Summarize; Go against Trump and you get the horn.
Dunleavy needs to stay here. We are better off with him concentrating on Alaska and not splitting time with the other 49 states.
Bingo!
To do what? Fix our elections?
Concentrating on what needs to be done for Alaska would be nice. But why should he start now?
Two reasons:
1. Dunleavy will become Secretary of Energy.
2. Dunleavy stays at strong Governor where he can do much more with Trump in office.
Trump found out about Nancy Dahlstrom.
This.
…….number 3 to above comment. Please place at number 1 position.
Give Bergum’s full history: He sold his company, Great Plains, to Microsoft and went on to head the Business Solutions Group until he handed that role over to Satya Nadella who is now heading all of Microsoft.
Sorry, Dunleavy is not a fighter. It just is.
Burgum’s bio makes him sound like a superstar. Dunleavy, not so much. I can see why Burgum was picked.
Palin? Seriously? I would have thought that Trump might have put her somewhere in 2016 but he didn’t. Hard to see how her stock would be worth more today – fifteen years after leaving government service (to the extent she did much anyway).
I suppose if Gaetz can be Attorney General, Palin can be at Energy and Megan Thee Stallion at Treasury. Makes perfect sense.
Mike Lindell for Treasury!!!
Interesting idea but, in the spirit of bipartisanship, I am sticking with Megan Thee Stallion at Treasury. It’s an Alexander Hamilton thing. She obviously understands something about stuff I ain’t know nothing about.
Still gotta have Matt Gaetz doing all the great Matt Gaetz stuff at the DOJ. (That is quite a list!) And imagining Sarah Palin in control of the nuclear stockpile is just mind-blowing.
It’s easy to imagine the conversation:
staff: “Sir, we recommend Mr. Burgum. He appears to represent everything you asked for.”
Pres-elect: “But what about that guy from Alaska? Dunglevy, or whatever his name is?”
Staff: “Sir, we have no doubts about his fealty to you and your policies, but we have serious reservations about his other characteristics. Frankly, he appears to be rather….dim”
Pres-elect: “Ok then, go with Bergum then. Who’s next??”
If you ask me Burgum was the better pick of the two even with so much of AK owned by the federal government.
Dunleavy needs to stay. We do not want Dahlstrom in the Governor’s office.
Agree!
Hopefully not Palin. She already did enough damage to Alaska.
Some of my family is from ND. I heard something negative about him recently – can’t remember what it was now because we have our own problems here in Alaska. But, I distinctly remember thinking about my family members and how they must be feeling having a Rino governor.
Congratulations to Governor Burgum on being nominated to Secretary of the Interior. As we Alaskans know, the Secretary of Interior has a huge impact on western states.
There has been speculation in recent days that a certain very tall man in Juneau would receive a long awaited call from Mar-a-Lago about that very job. Did not happen! The reason is becoming very clear after watching the breath taking parade of nomination announcements by President Trump. All the announcements are being perfectly timed to keep the media heads exploding in perfect intervals. Like watching synchronized swimming. We marvel at these nominees being total bad-asses who are totally committed to implementing Trump’s MAGA agenda. However, when one views our governor’s performance over the past few years it becomes obvious that he has earned a reputation for ‘having the slows’. Since the world of Trump is operating at a dazzling ‘warp speed’, it is no wonder why our governor never received that call.
Face it. Alaska’s destiny is to continue as the nations park and Federal employees under Trump will continue to protect “the nations park” from us low-life locals just as they always have.
Doesn’t matter who got it, we just need Deb Haaland out of there and hopefully she can take Mary Peltola with her.
Why would Dunleavy vacate right before the natural resource boom starts.
I think he will stick it out and run for Senate.
Dunleavy is the perfect governor. He does nothing much at all and you’d hardly even know he was there. Perfect politician. Although there was that whole draconian Covid lockdown government overreach thing. He was pretty good at restricting civil rights and doing as Zinke told him to do. President Trump made the right choice.
Let’s turn to Kelly Tshibaka. I’m hoping Trump taps her for an important position, or that she runs against Murkowski again and wins! She would be fantastic!
Doug Burgum is a superstar! Trump clearly selected the candidate with the strongest resume’. What a contrast compared to our current interior secretary!
This a a double win for Alaska. We will have a very capable pro-development interior secretary and we get to keep our excellent governor in Juneau.
Dunleavy can slink back into the Bush and stand small there.
And a lot of work to do….and I hope that he doesn’t get tangled up the clowns!
We are better off as a state with Dunleavy than we would be with Dahlstrom. The energy sector is going to kick into gear regardless, and Burgum comes with one hell of a resume. When Dunleavy’s term is up I think there is a guy by the name of Bronson out there that may be looking for a job.
Edit: “And a lot of work to do; I hope that he doesn’t get tangled up with the clowns!”
Trump will appoint Palin. He won the election using her “Drill baby drill”. Now she gets her payback.
I feel comfortable with Dunleavy remaining as governor, because I worry about the 2025 legislature being controlled by the left, and possibly passing an LGBT anti-discrimination bill. The 2023-24 legislature introduced HB-99 (LGBT bill) but fortunately it did not pass.
.
My vague impression and hope, is that Governor Dunleavy would veto such a burdensome, freedom-robbing bill.
I would hope that a Governor Nancy Dahlstrom would also veto such a bill. My unsubstantiated worry, however, is that sometimes, some women might be a little more squishy and compromising in the face of such laws. I mean no offense, and I have no knowledge of Nancy Dahlstrom’s position on this.
Dunleavy ran on a full PFD. But never got it approved. I don’t think he tried hard enough he could have used his line item veto to strong arm house and senate approval.
He should be doing something to motivate our lazy election system.
I hope we get a stronger candidate for governor and Trump puts Dunleavy in Washington.
Maybe opening that “immigrant” employment office isn’t MAGA enough for Trump.
Perhaps a Governor has to be seeking a job in order to “be passed over!” Many of us that know the Governor well, knew the likelihood of him moving to DC was extremely slim. We also knew he was not actively pursuing a job there.
I really like all the comments from people that do not know law and what a Governor can and cannot do! President Trump is going to need a strong Governor in the state. Look for great things to happen!
Both Doug Burgum and the Energy Secretary nominee have strong donor support. Doug Burgum does business with one of Trump’s major donors and the Energy Secretary nominee is the CEO of a fracking company and a major donor to Trump. This is in the data posted by The Hill. Money talks.
Also, Doug Burgum was owner of a company and had data company credentials similar to JD Vance. So it looks more like a business model in the energy sector.