Trump picks North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum to lead Interior

Driving the news: Trump congratulated Burgum, who was attending the event in Palm Beach, Florida, and said that he would make a formal announcement on Friday.

• "We're going to reduce regulation, waste, fraud and inefficiency, and these two guys are going to find a lot of it. We're going to clean out the corrupt, broken and failing bureaucracies," Trump said.
• "And we're going to stop child sexual mutilation, we're going to stop it because it's time."

The big picture: The Interior Department oversees vast swaths of federal lands and waters. Trump will likely look to expand oil and gas leasing in the Gulf of Mexico and Western states.

• Burgum could also help Trump's goal of stymieing offshore wind development in federal waters.

Between the lines: Bergum has ties to the oil and gas industry, which forms a key part of North Dakota's economy.

• He's set a goal for North Dakota to become carbon-neutral by 2030 with an "all-of-the-above energy policy."

Background: Bergum sold accounting software firm Great Plains Software to Microsoft for some $1.1 billion in stock in 2001 and went on to co-found a venture capital company and found a real estate development business before pursuing a political career, being first elected governor in 2016.

Flashback: Burgum touted the benefits of both fossil fuels and clean energy when he ran an unsuccessful energy-centric campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

• "Low-cost, reliable clean energy, which we make in the U.S. better than anywhere in the world ... this is the thing that allows our economy to thrive," he told Axios Pro last year.

Go deeper: Burgum hits the road as Trump's busiest surrogate

Editor's note: This article has been updated with new details throughout.