WASHINGTON—For most Interior secretaries, the sometimes sleepy job centers on overseeing 480 million acres of federal public lands and approving permits for oil-and-gas development.
For Doug Burgum, it also means being President Trump’s personal project manager.
Burgum is point man for Trump’s Washington makeover, tackling everything from troublesome algae blooms in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to an effort to revitalize aging golf courses in the city.
The portfolio has made Burgum, a former tech entrepreneur and governor of North Dakota, a constant fixture at the president’s side, giving him an unusually prominent role in Trump’s second term amid the country’s 250th birthday celebrations.
When Trump headed last week to Capitol Hill to meet with Senate Republicans, Burgum joined him in the presidential limo. A couple of days later, Burgum was there again, taking Trump on a tour of one of the golf courses the president wants to redesign. On Wednesday, the Interior secretary, wearing a cowboy hat, was among the travelers on the maiden flight of the new Qatari-gifted Air Force One. The president flew to North Dakota, where he attended the opening of Burgum’s passion project: Theodore Roosevelt’s presidential library.
The president recently presented Burgum with a signed poster board emblazoned with a photo of the Interior secretary riding across the reflecting pool in an ATV. “To Doug— Great job,” Trump wrote.
“He’s a builder, and I think it drives him crazy when he sees things that aren’t maintained,” Burgum said in an interview, referring to Trump. “We are legitimately the leader of the world, and he would think that as the leader of the world, you ought to have the most beautiful and safest capital.”
Trump has Burgum on speed dial, sometimes calling him several times a day to check on his efforts to renovate the city’s parks, statues and fountains. During an Oval Office interview last year with The Wall Street Journal, the president called Burgum and put him on speakerphone so he could provide updates on the redesign of Washington’s golf courses.
Many of the capital’s most well-known tourist attractions—from the reflecting pool to the National Mall—are on federal land managed by the National Park Service, which falls under Burgum’s jurisdiction.
For the past several months, the Interior Department has sent the president a daily update with photos of the progress being made on his projects, Burgum said. Sometimes the photos end up on Trump’s Truth Social page.
“I’d say for him, this isn’t a distraction, it’s like vacation for him,” Burgum said of Trump’s focus on White House renovations and projects around Washington.
Burgum faced one of the biggest public tests of his tenure last month after Trump’s roughly $16 million renovation of the reflecting pool became a national news story. As algae blooms clouded the water and segments of the pool’s new lining floated to the surface, senior leadership from the National Park Service strapped on waders to help clean up the mess, people familiar with the matter said.
“He was frustrated about how people were trying to say it was a failure,” Burgum said, adding, “The point of the liner was to stop the leakage. The liner was never gonna stop algae.”
Burgum said algae built up in nearby pipes and flowed into the reflecting pool as workers refilled it. “The algae got ahead of us, and then when we got the nanobubblers going, then we caught up,” he said, referring to a technology installed at the pool to prevent algae.
Burgum’s focus on his boss’s priorities has led to criticism that he isn’t paying enough attention to the Interior Department’s other missions. An agency spokeswoman said the department was “walking and chewing gum at the same time.”
Conservation advocates, including the National Parks Conservation Association and Sierra Club, have criticized Burgum and the Trump administration for cutting Interior Department staff, expanding oil-and-gas permitting on public lands, and shifting resources to Washington at the expense of parks in other parts of the country. Democrats are calling on the Trump administration to explain why no-bid contracts were used to renovate the reflecting pool.
“We have a responsibility to maintain all of our locations. This one happens to be the most visited one of all, and it was in the worst condition,” Burgum said of the nation’s capital. “So, I mean, people can say that, but it’s a false trade off.”
He pointed to the new $450 million Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, outside the entrance to the 26th president’s namesake national park in the Badlands, as a potential model for the private sector entering in partnerships with national parks. The library is on formerly public land that was transferred to the private library foundation by the government.
Burgum said federal public lands should have multiple uses, including energy production, timber harvesting, grazing and recreation.
Working for Trump, Burgum said, means being available at all hours of the day. He recalled having to pull over on the side of the road late one Saturday night so he could help connect the president to Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. “If his schedule ends at 10 o’clock at night…that’s when he starts calling cabinet members and other people,” Burgum said. “So it’s not unusual to get calls that are very late.”
Burgum chairs the newly created National Energy Dominance Council, where he oversees the development of energy projects and works across the administration to increase domestic energy production and cut red tape for energy projects. The new role put the Interior Secretary on the National Security Council.
In an unusual move for an Interior secretary, Burgum flew to Venezuela in March to personally meet with acting President Delcy Rodríguez to discuss critical mineral supply chains and U.S. capital investment in oil.
Burgum endorsed Trump on the eve of Iowa caucuses in January 2024, after he ended his own presidential bid. He went on to become one of the president’s most prominent surrogates on the campaign trail. He was on the shortlist for vice president and was a liaison between tech and energy donors during the transition. Trump aides say the president hasn’t forgotten his early endorsement or loyalty.
Burgum, 69 years old, was born and raised in the small town of Arthur, N.D. Among the photos in his Interior Department office is an image of his mother on horseback in front of a Crow Tribe teepee in Montana, where her father, North Dakota’s first public-health doctor, was delivering medical supplies.
After working at McKinsey & Company, Burgum was inspired to get into the tech business and in 1983 literally bet the farm, investing $250,000 of the farmland he inherited into Fargo-based Great Plains Software. He became CEO, took the company public in 1997, and sold it to Microsoft in a $1.1 billion, all-stock deal. Burgum joined Microsoft as an executive and worked closely with current Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who considers Burgum a mentor.
In 2016, Burgum became governor of North Dakota, and served in the role until December 2024. Aides to Burgum say he doesn’t talk about running for office again. Burgum said he hopes to serve in the administration all four years. Several people close to the White House think he could serve in other cabinet roles.
Burgum is scheduled again to be with Trump when he visits Mount Rushmore in South Dakota on Friday. Asked about Trump supporters calling for his face to be carved into the monument, Burgum didn’t rule it out.
“I’m sure that there are going to be a lot of people that are going to say we need to build something recognizing President Trump,” Burgum said. “But I think right now what he’s focused on is…fixing everything we have.”
Write to Meridith McGraw at Meridith.McGraw@WSJ.com
