Trump also nominated Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota as Interior secretary.
Trump indicated his intention to nominate Burgum on Thursday while attending an America First Policy Institute gala. Burgum was also present.
“I won’t tell you his name, it could be something like Burgum. Burgum,” Trump told gala attendees.
“In fact, he’s going to run the Interior Department and he’s going to be fantastic,” the president-elect said.
If confirmed, Burgum will lead the Interior Department, which manages more than 500 million acres of federal and tribal lands.
“We’re going to do things with energy and with the land, Interior, it’s going to be incredible,” Trump said Thursday.
Trump reportedly considered Burgum as a potential vice presidential candidate, alongside other candidates like Sen. JD Vance of Ohio and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida. Trump ultimately chose Vance as vice president and has since nominated Rubio for secretary of state.
In July, Burgum said Kaitlan Collins of CNN that Trump had called him “Mr. Secretary” while informing him that he had not been selected as the Republican vice-presidential candidate.
Like Trump, Burgum was a businessman before entering politics. In 2001, he sold his software company, Great Plains Software, to Microsoft for more than $1 billion.
Burgum was elected governor of North Dakota in 2016 and his second term is set to end in December. Burgum said in January that he would not seek a third term as governor.