Interior Secretary Faces Scrutiny for Travel Amid Shutdown

While some national parks are seeing damage and illegal activity during the government shutdown, Doug Burgum is traveling around the Middle East, selling American gas and oil.

November 04, 2025

Doug Burgum, the interior secretary and President Trump’s energy czar, is on a weeklong swing through the Middle East and Europe, with stops in Abu Dhabi for a major oil summit and in Athens for a global energy gathering.

Mr. Burgum has suggested that one goal of the trip is to negotiate more sales of American oil and gas to the rest of the world, one of the president’s top priorities.

Yet some critics are questioning whether it’s appropriate for the interior secretary to be traveling abroad at taxpayer expense when the federal government is shut down. One of Mr. Burgum’s main responsibilities is oversight of national parks, which are suffering damage and illegal activity during the shutdown because of low staffing levels.

“As national parks are either closed or operating on skeleton crews, I can’t imagine anything more disconnected than for the secretary of interior to jet off to these places and schmooze with oil oligarchs,” said Representative Jared Huffman of California, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee. Mr. Huffman questioned whether Mr. Burgum flew on commercial or private planes and at what cost to taxpayers.

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By:  Maxine Joselow
Source: The New York Times