U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has selected Chris Wright, the founder of an oilfield services company, to lead the Energy Department, as his new administration continues to take shape. The transition team officially announced the choice on Saturday afternoon. On Friday, Trump announced a new National Energy Council to be led by his Interior Department pick, former North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum. In this role, Burgum will direct a panel that crosses all executive branch agencies involved in energy permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation and transportation, Trump said in a statement. As chairman of the National Energy Council, Burgum will have a seat on the National Security Council, the president-elect said. Wright, the CEO of Liberty Energy based in Denver, Colorado, has no political experience. He is an advocate for the oil and gas industry, including fracking. In 2019, he drank fracking liquid to show that it was not dangerous. According to a March 2024 report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the U.S. has produced more crude oil than any nation at any time, according to its International Energy Statistics, for the past six years in a row. Average monthly U.S. crude oil production established a monthly record high in December 2023 at more than 13.3 million barrels per day. Earlier announcements The Trump-Vance transition team announced Steven Cheung will return to the Trump White House as communications director. He held the same position for the Trump-Vance 2024 presidential campaign and served in the White House during Trump’s first term as director of strategic response. On Friday evening, Trump announced that his campaign press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, would be his White House press secretary. She served as assistant press secretary in his previous term in office. Trump has swiftly named an array of political loyalists to key Cabinet positions. Most of them are likely to win quick Senate approval after confirmation hearings. Having won majorities in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, Republicans are set to take full control of the U.S. government by the third week in January. “Republicans in the House and Senate have a mandate,” newly reelected House Speaker Mike Johnson said earlier this week. “The American people want us to implement and deliver that ‘America First’ agenda.” Trump will be sworn in as the country’s 47th president on January 20, two weeks after the new Congress has been seated. The 78-year-old Trump campaigned on a sweeping agenda that Democrats will be largely powerless to stop. Republicans will have a 53-47 edge in the Senate, and the tie-breaking vote of Vice President-elect JD Vance in the event of a 50-50 stalemate on any legislative proposal. Republicans have secured at least 218 seats in the 435-member House, pending the outcome of seven undecided elections for two-year terms. During his bid to win a second, nonconsecutive four-year term, Trump called for the massive deportation of millions of undocumented migrants living in the United States to their home countries, an extension and expansion of 2017 tax cuts that are set to expire at the end of 2025, further deregulation of businesses, a curb on climate controls, and prosecution of his political opponents. Senator John Thune of South Dakota, newly elected by his fellow Republicans as the Senate majority leader, said, “This Republican team is united. We are on one team. We are excited to reclaim the majority and to get to work with our colleagues in the House to enact President Trump’s agenda.” Trump also has called on Senate Republican leaders to allow him to make “recess appointments,” which could occur when the chamber is not in session and would erase the need for time-consuming and often contentious confirmation hearings. Despite the likelihood that most of his nominees will be approved, Trump this week named four who immediately drew disparaging assessments from several Democrats and some Republicans for their perceived lack of credentials. They are former Representative Matt Gaetz as attorney general; former Democratic congresswoman turned Republican Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence; former junior military officer and Fox News host Pete Hegseth as defense secretary; and former presidential candidate and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Health and Human Services Department. The blowback presages tough confirmation fights for the four in the Senate, which reviews the appointments of top-level officials and then votes to confirm them or, on occasion, reject them, forcing the White House to make another choice. The appointment of Gaetz, 42, could prove particularly problematic, with some senators openly questioning whether he can win a 51-vote majority to assume the government’s top law enforcement position. A House ethics committee probe was in the final stages of investigating whether he engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use when he announced his resignation from the chamber late Wednesday, ending the probe. The Justice Department that Gaetz hopes to lead had decided not to pursue criminal charges. Gaetz has denied all wrongdoing. Gabbard, 43, has been criticized for her lack of direct experience in intelligence and accused of disseminating pro-Russian disinformation. If confirmed, she would be tasked with overseeing 18 U.S. intelligence agencies. She won over Trump with her switch from being a one-time Democratic House member from Hawaii to changing parties and staunchly advocating for his election. Critics have assailed Hegseth, a 44-year-old decorated former military officer, as someone who lacks managerial experience in the business world. A weekend anchor on Fox News, he has voiced his opinions on military operations, including his opposition to women serving in combat roles. A descendant of the Kennedy family political dynasty, Kennedy, 70, for years has been one of the country’s most prominent proponents of anti-vaccine views. He also opposed water fluoridation. On Thursday, Trump also selected former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton to be Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor, and former Representative Doug Collins to be secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Trump named one of his personal criminal defense attorneys, Todd Blanche, to be deputy attorney general, and another of his attorneys, D. John Sauer, to be solicitor general. The Associated Press provided some information for this report.
