Two former senior Trump administration Interior Department officials are under consideration to be that department’s deputy in Trump’s second term, said two people with knowledge of the transition.
Kate MacGregor, who served as Interior deputy, and former Fish and Wildlife Service Director Aurelia Skipwith Giacometto are both in the running for the Interior deputy job, said those people who were granted anonymity to speak about transition personnel decisions.
The incoming Interior deputy will have one of the most significant jobs in setting the Trump administration’s energy policy. They’ll be tasked with assisting to operate the roughly 70,000-person department while helping to enact the Trump agenda to expand domestic fossil fuel production.
Picking an Interior veteran for the deputy slot would follow Trump’s first-term playbook for Interior, when he nominated GOP congressman Ryan Zinke of Montana to lead the department and installed former Interior Solicitor David Bernhardt as deputy. Trump’s pick to lead Interior in his second term — North Dakota Republican Gov. Doug Burgum — will be a newcomer to the federal government and to the department if he wins Senate confirmation.
