Daily Caller
Pipelines and Energy Top Priorities for Trump’s Interior Secretary

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum speaks to the Republican National Convention, July 17, 2024. (Screen Capture/CSPAN)
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Adam Pack
Senate Overwhelmingly Confirms Doug Burgum As Trump’s Interior Secretary
The Senate confirmed former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum in a bipartisan fashion to lead President Donald Trump’s Department of Interior Thursday evening.
Senators overwhelmingly approved Burgum’s nomination 79 to 18. Three senators did not vote. Under the prior administration, we went from a nation of energy dominance to a nation of energy dependence.
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America is an energy superpower. We should act like it. @DougBurgum and @ChrisAWright_ are America’s energy all-stars. I strongly support their nominations. pic.twitter.com/3o4xuan31r
— Sen. John Barrasso (@SenJohnBarrasso) January 30, 2025
Senate Republicans endorsed Burgum’s nomination, saying he was committed to reversing the work of his predecessor, former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, to restrict energy resources. Haaland worked to block oil and gas leasing in development in Alaska.
“Governor Burgum knows that America’s natural resources are our greatest national asset,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Wednesday on the Senate floor prior to Burgum’s confirmation vote. “Too often, under the Biden administration, the Interior Department was the tip of the spear in restricting development of America’s resources.”
Burgum promised to prioritize energy abundance during his leadership over the Interior Department.
“The American people clearly placed their confidence in President Trump to achieve Energy Dominance,” Burgum wrote in his opening remarks to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources (ENR) Committee during his confirmation hearing on Jan 16. “Energy Dominance is the foundation of historic American prosperity, affordability for American families, and unrivaled national security.”
“President Trump’s Energy Dominance vision will end wars abroad and make life more affordable for every family by driving down inflation,” Burgum added. “President Trump will achieve these goals while championing clean air, clean water, and our beautiful land.”
Burgum won the support of a majority of Senate Democrats, including Democratic New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich who serves as the lead Democrat on the Senate ENR Committee.
“I clearly do not agree with Governor Burgum on every issue,” Heinrich wrote in a statement on Jan. 23. “However, I voted to confirm Governor Burgum’s nomination for Interior Secretary because I have found that a healthy relationship with the Secretary of Interior is critical to securing the best outcomes for the State of New Mexico.”
Trump has tasked Burgum with leading a newly-created interagency National Energy Council to cut regulations affecting the energy sector and harness private sector investment related to energy innovation. The president also appointed Burgum to a seat on the National Security Council, a rare appointment for an energy secretary.
Burgum served two terms as North Dakota’s governor beginning in December 2016. He launched a presidential run in June 2023, but struggled to gain traction and suspended his campaign that December. He endorsed Trump in January 2024 and served as a campaign surrogate throughout the remainder of the race.
Thune teed up confirmation votes Thursday evening on energy executive Chris Wright to lead the Department of Energy and former Republican Georgia Rep. Doug Collins to lead the Department of Veterans’ Affairs.
Daily Caller
All Epstein Files Are In, Attorney General Reveals What Will Go Public Starting Thursday

From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Hailey Gomez
If something’s redacted, you will know the line, and you will know why it’s redacted, the victim’s name, identifying information of a victim.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Monday evening on Fox News that the thousands of withheld files on deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein are now in the hands of the FBI, adding certain redactions will be made, with an explanation provided for each one.
The Department of Justice released the first phase of “The Epstein Files” — an over 100-page document — on Thursday, but it failed to contain a majority of new information, sparking controversy online. On “Hannity,” Fox’s Sean Hannity addressed the controversy, asking Bondi for her response. She said she had been informed fewer than 24 hours before the release that “there were way more documents that they were supposed to turn over.”
“You’re looking at these documents going, ‘These aren’t all the Epstein files.’ There were flight logs, there were names, victims’ names, and we’re going, ‘Where’s the rest of the stuff?’ That’s what the FBI had turned over to us,” Bondi said. “So a source said, ‘Whoa, all this evidence is sitting in the Southern District of New York.’ So based on that, I gave them the deadline, Friday at 8, a truckload of evidence arrived.”
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“It’s now in the possession of the FBI. Kash is going to get me, and himself really, a detailed report as to why all these documents and evidence had been withheld,” Bondi added. “We’re going to go through it, go through it as fast as we can, but go through it very cautiously to protect all the victims of Epstein, because there are a lot of victims.”
Before the release of “Phase One,” Bondi told Fox News last Wednesday that the DOJ would be releasing “some” of the files by Thursday, hoping the public would see “a lot of flight logs, a lot of names, a lot of information.” However, the DOJ and Trump administration faced pushback online after conservative influencers obtained a binder labeled “The Epstein Files: Phase 1.” Some of those influencers were seen smiling and holding it up outside the West Wing.
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Hannity pressed Bondi about additional potential redactions in the files.
“National security, some grand jury information, which is always going to be confidential, but we’ll see. Let’s look through them as fast as we can. Get it out to the American people, because the American people have a right to know,” Bondi said. “Not only on that, but on Kennedy, on Martin Luther King, on all of these cases that the Biden administration has just sat on for all these years.”
“It’s really — it’s not sad. It’s infuriating that these people thought that they could sit on this information, but they can’t,” Bondi said. “And when we redact things, Sean, what we’re going to do is not just pull pages out like they used to do. If something’s redacted, you will know the line, and you will know why it’s redacted, the victim’s name, identifying information of a victim.”
Epstein was arrested and charged in 2019 with sex trafficking, only later to be found dead in his New York Metropolitan Correctional Center cell a month after his arrest. Since his death, Republicans, including Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn, have called for the full, unredacted records of Epstein to be released to the public, which includes his infamous flight log.
After the release of phase one, Bondi requested that the FBI deliver the remaining documents to the DOJ by Friday at 8 a.m., tasking newly confirmed FBI Director Kash Patel with investigating “why the request for all documents was not followed.”
“We believe in transparency, and America has the right to know. The Biden administration sat on these documents. No one did anything with them. Why were they sitting in the Southern District of New York? I want a full report on that,” Bondi said.
“Sadly, these people don’t believe in transparency, but I think more, unfortunately, I think a lot of them don’t believe in honesty,” Bondi added. “It’s a new day. It’s a new administration, and everything’s going to come out to the public. The public has a right to know. Americans have a right to know.”
Daily Caller
US Pauses Military Aid To Ukraine

From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Hailey Gomez
The U.S. Defense Department confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation Monday evening that military aid to Ukraine has been halted.
All current military aid to Ukraine is paused until President Donald Trump can determine a good-faith commitment to peace from Ukrainian leaders, according to Bloomberg. The pause, which includes weapons either in transit or in Poland, comes just days after Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy got into a heated discussion while meeting in the Oval Office on Friday to finalize the U.S.-Ukraine mineral deal.
During the gathering, Zelenskyy publicly criticized the U.S. for not attempting to halt Russia. Trump quickly responded, stating that Ukraine was not in a position to call out the U.S., given the billions in aid already provided to the country, and he warned Zelenskyy that he was “gambling” with World War III.
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Following the gathering, Trump later posted on Truth Social that Zelenskyy was not ready for “peace” with the White House telling Daily Caller White House correspondent Reagan Reese that “nothing will be signed.”
While Trump has advocated for peace between Russia and Ukraine since his campaign, Zelenskyy has appeared to flip-flop on ending the war. In a statement Sunday evening, following the Oval Office argument, Zelenskyy said an “agreement to end the war is still very, very far away, and no one has started all these steps yet,” according to the Associated Press.
In response to Zelenskyy, Trump posted on Truth Social Monday, calling out the Ukrainian president. He wrote that it was not only “the worst statement” that could’ve been made, but that America “will not put up with it for much longer.”
“It is what I was saying, this guy doesn’t want there to be Peace as long as he has America’s backing and, Europe, in the meeting they had with Zelenskyy, stated flatly that they cannot do the job without the U.S.,” Trump wrote.
While Democrats have criticized Trump and Vice President JD Vance over their meeting with Zelenskyy, Republicans have called out the Ukrainian president’s behavior. Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a historically staunch defender of Ukraine, said Zelenskyy “obliterated” the U.S. efforts to bring peace.
In reaction to the aid pause, retired U.S. Army officer Daniel Davis told Fox host Laura Ingraham on “The Ingraham Angle” that he hopes the halt will change Zelenskyy’s “disposition” as the U.S. seeks to bring peace between the two countries.
“I certainly hope it changes its disposition,” Davis said. “Instead of recognizing reality, Zelenskyy, unfortunately aided by the Biden administration, and then all of Europe continued to ignore the reality and just go year after year fighting this war that could never have been won.”
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“His people have been killed in huge numbers since. Now that you have Trump coming in, who’s unequivocally saying this war is coming to an end and he doesn’t want to,” Davis added. “So now then, that really, in my view, just sealed the deal for Trump because Trump’s trying to get the war over with, and this guy seems to want to fight it. If he does, then he can try to do it on his own.”
Before all aid was paused, the Trump administration also halted financing for new weapons sales to Ukraine, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The financial pause comes after American taxpayers have contributed over $130 billion to aid the country since former President Joe Biden involved the U.S. in February 2022. Notably, Zelenskyy told the Associated Press on Feb. 1 that he had received only about $75 billion of the $177 billion the United States had approved for Ukraine.
On Friday, Zelenskyy told Fox News host Bret Baier that he was still open to signing the U.S. mineral deal and thanked U.S. leaders on X following the Oval Office meeting.
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