INTERESTED PARTIES MEMO: Interior Secretary Burgum Jets to Italy for Big Oil Conference While America’s Parks and Public Lands in Crisis
While America’s national parks and public lands face their worst staffing crisis in history and emergency response teams operate at a fraction of their capacity, billionaire Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is jetting off to Milan, Italy to speak in person at an international Big Oil conference this morning.
As parks crumble after the loss of nearly a quarter of the permanent staff and visitors are left at risk, Burgum prioritizes international energy networking over his actual responsibilities. The Interior Secretary is schmoozing in Italy with the same fossil fuel executives he maintains extensive financial ties with, raising serious questions about whether Burgum is working for the American people or his corporate cronies. This comes just days after an unprecedented move by an Interior Secretary in which Burgum consolidated his power by placing all U.S. Park Police under his direct control—a power grab that immediately prompted Police Chief Jessica Taylor to announce her retirement.
As parks crumble from a devastating loss of staff and emergency response teams operate at just a fraction of capacity, Burgum’s whereabouts and activities remain largely hidden from public view, raising serious questions about transparency, accountability, and his job performance during the manufactured fail-by-design crisis to justify privatizing our parks, public lands, and wildlife.
What’s the Deal with Burgum?
Uber-wealthy tech executive Doug Burgum represents everything wrong with Trump’s approach to parks, public lands, and wildlife—a billionaire with deep financial conflicts of interest masquerading as a public servant. The Interior Secretary made his fortune off Microsoft and maintains extensive ties to the fossil fuel industry through oil and gas leases with Continental Resources and Hess Corp., plus close relationships with billionaire oil executive Harold Hamm. His spouse owns up to $246,000 in fossil fuel company stock, creating obvious conflicts as he oversees America’s energy resources. Instead of managing our parks and public lands, Burgum has prioritized industrial oil and gas development over all other multi-use priorities, which is consistent with his political power plays to advance within the Trump sphere of influence. In fact, it’s widely known Burgum didn’t want to be Interior Secretary and had his sights set on a more powerful position within Trump’s cabinet, specifically Rubio’s Secretary of State position.
As North Dakota governor, Burgum brazenly designated 25 neighborhoods as federal opportunity zones, including two areas where his own company owned properties—essentially allowing his business to benefit from federal tax breaks on projects in zones he personally selected. This pattern of self-dealing and corporate cronyism has followed him to Washington, where he’s installed Kevin Lilly, a wealthy Houston-based investment banker with no meaningful conservation experience, to oversee the National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Burgum fired more than 8,000 employees across the Interior Department as part of what experts recognize as a deliberate “fail-by-design” strategy to justify privatization, according to research compiled by Save Our Parks. His administration’s three-step plan is clear: slash NPS budgets and cut park staff, ignore public concerns while allowing parks to deteriorate, then claim the private sector can better run the parks they purposely sabotaged.
Where is Doug-o Burgum?
As national parks crumble, burn, and are left unattended due to devastating budget cuts, Doug Burgum is prioritizing international travel and fossil fuel industry networking over his actual responsibilities. This week, the billionaire Interior Secretary is attending the Gastech Exhibition and Conference in Milan, Italy.
Instead of addressing the emergency staffing crisis that has left parks dangerously understaffed and visitors at risk, or even focusing on lowering skyrocketing electrical costs and persistently high gas prices, Burgum is schmoozing with energy executives and government officials at an event designed to “champion the role of natural gas”—the same industry where he maintains extensive financial ties through his relationships with Continental Resources, Hess Corp., and billionaire oil executive Harold Hamm.
The timing is particularly troubling: Burgum recently restructured the U.S. Park Police, moving its leadership one step closer to the White House by placing Chief Jessica Taylor under his direct supervision, bypassing the traditional chain of command within the National Park Service. Just days after this power consolidation, Chief Taylor announced her retirement from the force.
Unlike his predecessors, Doug Burgum operates in complete secrecy, refusing to release a public schedule that would show how he spends taxpayer time and money. Past Interior Secretaries, dating back to at least 2009, noticed public appearances. Even scandal-plagued former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and former oil lobbyist David Bernhardt maintained public schedules, but not Burgum. This unprecedented lack of transparency raises serious questions about whether he’s working for the public interest or pursuing private business dealings—and the answer becomes clear: he’s in Milan networking with fossil fuel executives while America’s parks burn.
Burgum’s Social Media Theater: All Flash, No Substance
A review of Burgum’s social media accounts reveals a lot of flash but no real substance. Sec. Burgum is clearly more focused on performative media appearances and tagging along with his bosses to political events than on managing the nation’s parks, public lands, and wildlife. Burgum’s secretarial Instagram account repeats his limited appearances multiple times, including promoting his involvement in Alligator Alcatraz. Burgum’s Interior Department failed to do the proper environmental review for the detention center.
Burgum’s lack of transparency, failing to properly do his job, and repeated social media posts haven't stopped the billionaire diva from subjecting Interior employees to weekly propaganda videos of Trump. The ‘Dear Leader-style’ videos called “Inside Interior” have created a new wave of dissent within the ranks of Interior Department employees who have dubbed the agency “The Department of Propaganda” under Burgum.
While America’s parks, land management, and federal wildfire fighting forces face their worst staffing crisis in history, Burgum’s whereabouts largely remain a mystery until after the fact. This wannabe tough guy appears to be doing little related to his secretarial role, instead spending his time doing Fox News hits to sell Trump’s failing agenda, while leaving Americans to wonder whether their Interior Secretary is actually working for the public interest or pursuing private business dealings that benefit his extensive corporate network.
What’s Happening to Our Parks Under Burgum’s Watch?
The devastation under Burgum’s leadership is unprecedented, dangerous, and getting worse. The Grand Canyon National Park has announced that help for injured visitors may be delayed, urging visitors to be “self-reliant.” In July 2025, a teenager died while swimming at Assateague Island National Seashore weeks after Maryland leaders asked the Trump administration to restore lifeguard staffing.
Basic park operations are collapsing across the system. Entrance fees are going uncollected due to severe staffing shortages, with Zion National Park losing an estimated $2 million in revenue as of July. Cultural, historical, and conservation educational programs have been eliminated, cutting off students and school programs from learning opportunities. Scientists and rangers at Yosemite have been forced to clean bathrooms because custodial staff were eliminated, while park toilets overflow and are being trashed due to staffing shortages.
Trump’s FY26 budget proposal calls for a devastating 38% cut that could force the closure of up to 350 park units, while also proposing to transfer park sites to state governments—a move experts recognize as a setup for privatization since states can’t afford to manage them. Meanwhile, Trump has deployed over 2,000 National Guard troops to Washington D.C. at a cost of over $1 million per day, forcing them to perform “beautification” tasks like trash removal that typically fall to the National Park Service. This misallocation of resources while parks face a full-blown staffing crisis exposes the administration’s true priorities: political theater over public safety.
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