Doug Burgum may not have the name recognition of President Donald Trump’s other cabinet secretaries, like Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem or Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but Burgum, the Interior Secretary and former governor of North Dakota, still pops up on TV from time to time to push the president’s agenda.
And he did just that on Thursday on Fox News to promote both artificial intelligence and fossil fuels. Burgum insisted that any skepticism about AI was unwarranted and that it would “cure cancer.”
The Fox & Friends crew first asked Burgum about reports that data centers across the country were driving up energy costs, an issue that’s been documented frequently in articles from Bloomberg, CNBC, and Pew Research. Bloomberg found that, “electricity now costs as much as 267% more for a single month than it did five years ago in areas located near significant data center activity.” But Burgum called the claim “100% false.”
“If you want to talk about data centers, the highest electric prices in this country are places like Hawaii and Maine, and there’s no data center activity going there,” said Burgum. “Data centers, it’s the first time in history we’ve been able to take a kilowatt of electricity and convert it into intelligence.”
Burgum went on to say that converting electricity to intelligence was “the miracle of AI.”
“We can actually manufacture intelligence. Do you think someone who’s gonna spend $10 billion building an AI factory is gonna put it in a place that has high electric prices today? Of course not,” Burgum insisted.
Burgum went on to compare the rise of AI to the expansion of railroad infrastructure in the 19th century, emphasizing that the U.S. is in an AI arms race with China. And Burgum, like every cabinet secretary who’s placed in front of a microphone, credited President Trump with having the vision to make all of the good things happen. Burgum celebrated Trump’s denunciation of clean energy and the “green new scam,” claiming, without evidence, that green energy was somehow bad for the environment.
It’s true that energy prices in blue states tend to be higher, though solely blaming that on renewable energy doesn’t make much sense. Burgum gave Hawaii as an example of a state without data centers but high energy costs, which isn’t intellectually honest, given Hawaii’s unique geographical characteristics as an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Everything’s more expensive in Hawaii.
West Virginia is a deep red state, with 70% of voters opting for President Trump in 2024. But its energy prices have soared 10.3% since 2018, according to the New York Times. Less than 5% of West Virginia’s energy comes from renewables, according to the state’s Office of Energy.
Burgum’s point doesn’t even make much sense in the context. People aren’t complaining that data centers are being built in areas with high energy costs; they’re pointing out that data centers are increasing energy costs in the areas where they are being built.
The think tank Energy Innovation modeled what’s likely to happen to energy costs since Trump’s so-called Big Beautiful Bill. It found that red states like Kentucky, Missouri, and South Carolina could see the highest jump in household energy prices over the next decade, with the phasing out of a tax credit for wind and solar in favor of fossil fuels like natural gas.
Fox & Friends host Ainsley Earhardt made the reason for Burgum’s appearance on the show more explicit after the Interior Secretary explained that AI is great. Earhardt said that people in Chandler, Arizona, would be voting on Thursday on whether to build a data center.
“We need to stay ahead of China,” Earhardt said. “And if we want to win the AI race against China, we have to build these data centers. So it’s just perception. How do we tell… you coming on Fox & Friends is telling the people in Arizona, ‘vote for this because it doesn’t mean your electric bills are going to go up.’”
Rarely is propaganda and the process behind it ever explained quite so bluntly by the people delivering it.
Burgum received criticism as the Governor of North Dakota that he was too cozy with the oil lobby. At the Interior Department, he’s pushed for ramping up an increase in oil production. The discussion on Fox News got particularly weird when Burgum insisted, without any pushback, that AI would cure cancer.
“First of all, software came upon America and the world in our lifetimes, and it was the greatest extension of human capability. Now we have…AI comes along, and it’s the greatest increase in productivity for humans ever. I mean, this is gonna, it’s not only gonna cure cancer, but it’s gonna eliminate all kinds of drudgery, repetitive jobs,” said Burgum.
“I mean, this drives things forward. So jobs will be different, but if every person in this country can have a free assistant that speaks 30 languages and can code. That’s not a bad thing,” he continued.
Claims that AI has radically increased productivity are highly contested, of course. While you might expect such a grandiose claim about curing cancer from someone who is ignorant of technology, this isn’t some random guy. Burgum made his money back in 2001 when he sold his software company, Great Plains Software, to Microsoft for $1.1 billion. He’s now reportedly worth about $100 million, according to Forbes. In theory, Burgum should have a little skepticism about the wildest claims coming from AI companies, given his tech background.
Burgum never defined any of the terms he was using, including AI, which is used in a wide variety of contexts these days. The AI tech that’s shooting down missiles is not the same AI tech that tells you to put glue on your pizza for a tasty snack. He also didn’t define a specific type of cancer, which is important given the fact that there are so many subtypes of cancer that require different treatments. A universal cancer cure is widely thought to be illogical.
But all of these talking points about AI clearly serve the interests of Big Tech and the people who’ve gotten so close to Trump—all of the same people who were revealed to be on the cover of Time magazine today as “Person of the Year.” Whether they like it or not, they do seem to be a big factor in rising household energy costs.
The Trump regime may have stumbled upon a new strategy for bringing down the cost of energy, even if it’s wildly unethical. On Wednesday, the U.S. seized a Venezuelan oil tanker, leading to questions about the justification for such a move. U.S. officials claim the vessel was violating sanctions.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked specifically by Fox News’ Peter Doocey whether Trump would use the seized oil to “try to help Americans with affordability here in the United States.”
“As you know, Peter, the vessel will go to a U.S. port and the United States does intend to seize the oil,” Leavitt said. “However, there is a legal process for the seizure of that oil, and that legal process will be followed.”
Reuters reported Thursday that the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security had been planning the operation “for months,” and it intends to seize more oil from Venezuela.
