President Donald Trump has salivated over Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s wife, saying he only tapped her husband for office after watching her ride a horse.
Trump was signing an executive order on drug addiction in the Oval Office on Thursday when he turned his attention to Kathryn Burgum.
Burgum, 62, has spoken openly about her struggles with alcohol—she has been sober for 24 years—and spoke briefly in support of the executive order at its signing.
Sitting low at the Resolute Desk, Trump turned to look at the former North Dakota first lady over his right shoulder.
“I saw them riding horses in a video. And I said, ‘Who is that?’ I was talking about her, not him. I said, ‘I’m gonna hire him,’ because anybody that has somebody like you to be with, it’s an amazing tribute.”
He added, “It’s a great couple, amazing couple, and she is very much a part of his big success. He was a fantastic success, as you know, having been one of the most successful business people. I saw him campaigning, great governor, two-term governor. He did a fantastic job—North Dakota.”
“And he’s done a great job and I’ll tell you what, Kathryn is a very big part of it. I see it. It’s just really one of the fantastic couples.”
Speaking to ABC News in 2023, during her husband’s ultimately doomed presidential run, Burgum said of her alcoholism: “I always get emotional when I tell this story, but I just said, ‘If there’s anybody out there, I need help.’ And I’ve been sober since I uttered those words. So, you know, that was a miracle for me, because I spent a lot of years relapsing and, you know, and suicidal. So, I’m so grateful to be here today.”
Doug Burgum, 69, had initially been touted to be Trump’s preferred running mate for 2024, but the president’s sons convinced him to go instead for the younger JD Vance.
Speaking to NBC News, a source inside the Republican party said, “Don Jr. and Eric went bats–t crazy: ‘Why would you do something so stupid? He offers us nothing.’ They were basically all like ‘JD, JD, JD.’”
Since taking the less glamorous role as head of the nation’s parks, Burgum has been mired in controversy after acting on an executive order from Trump to tackle what he deems to be efforts to “perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history.”
Acting on it in January, Burgum passed an order of his own, telling staff to review messaging that “inappropriately disparages Americans past or living (including persons living in colonial times).”
The move culminated in the removal of slavery exhibits in Philadelphia’s Independence Mall, as crews removed plaques at the President’s House, which tell the stories of nine people enslaved by President George Washington, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
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