The unusual requests made of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s staff are raising concerns all the way to the White House.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum likes chocolate-chip cookies—preferably freshly baked and still warm.
This peculiar fact became the talk of the Department of the Interior in recent weeks after his chief of staff, JoDee Hanson, made an unusual request of the political appointees in his office: Learn to regularly bake cookies for Burgum and his guests, using the industrial ovens at the department headquarters.
That request was not the only move by his team that has alarmed some Interior officials. Four people familiar with Burgum’s leadership, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, told The Atlantic that Burgum was focused on his status as the leader of a minor Cabinet department and that those who ran his office repeatedly made unusual demands to his employees. His office leadership once instructed political appointees to act as servers for a multicourse meal. They also dispatched a U.S. Park Police helicopter for his personal transportation. On at least one occasion, a political appointee was told to remake the cookies because the batch was subpar, according to three people.
Some of the concerns have been elevated to senior White House officials, according to the sources. One person familiar with the behavior described Burgum as “Doug the diva.” Three people said the concerns have been widely discussed among lower-level staff at the Department of the Interior. Two people said political appointees in Burgum’s office have been seen crying because of the demands placed on them.
“These pathetic smears are from unnamed cowards who don’t know Doug Burgum and are trying to stop President Trump’s Energy Dominance agenda,” Interior spokesperson Katie Martin told us in a statement. “Everyone knows Secretary Burgum always leads with gratitude and is humbly working with President Trump.”
