Hamm: Interior, DOE Leadership is a ‘Dream Team’

It’s fair to say the founder and executive chairman of Continental Resources has some influence with the current administration on energy policy matters and who’s going to put them in place.

“Believe it or not, (President) Donald Trump listens,” Hamm said on Feb. 5 during the 2025 NAPE Summit’s Governors Energy Forum. “A lot of people don't believe that, but he does listen, and he is so smart.”

Hamm spoke alongside Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon, filling in for Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma. Stitt had been called away on important business with the president, literally. Being both an industry legend and a Trump policy adviser, Hamm easily slipped into the seat just a few days after Chris Wright won Senate confirmation as Secretary of Energy on Feb. 3.

Wright, the Liberty Energy co-founder, chairman and CEO who was Hamm’s top choice for the appointment, impressed the president during their first meeting, Hamm said.

“Chris is well-known in the industry, and everyone has great deal of respect for [him]. Nobody knows the numbers any better than Chris Wright, and his heart's in the right place,” he said. “He's just an oil and gas guy.”

Hamm, who turned down an offer to be energy secretary during Trump’s first term, shared the story of introducing Wright to the president during a Mar-a-Lago dinner with other industry heavyweights.

“The president wanted to hear from each and every one around that table. And when it came to Chris and he asked him questions and Chris would answer so sharply to the point with all the numbers, the president said, ‘Wow, you ought to head up the DOE.’

Another politician who had won Hamm’s endorsement is now interior secretary; Doug Burgum, previously the governor of North Dakota, started his new job this week.

Burgum was acquainted with the president when he was running against him in the 2016 GOP primary. But through that process, he and Trump developed a relationship that was so close the president had considered Burgum to join the ticket as vice president last year.

“He was a very close runner-up for VP in my estimation. But I think it all came together,” Hamm said. “I think most people don't realize what we really have there with Governor Burgum heading up Interior and then Chris at the DOE. It is a dream team of unimaginable proportions.”

Another thing Trump listened to was Hamm’s advice to bring all of energy together to emphasize the importance of the industry.

“He created the National Energy Council and put Governor Burgum over that. You bring all of energy—from the [U.S. Environmental Protection Agency] and every other agency into one and have one central location,” he said. “I don't think anybody has full appreciation of that. So it's more than a dream team; it can be so efficient as these people deal with energy at that level.”

Another key part of Hamm’s industry advocacy is closer to home for the Oklahoma native. Part of Hamm’s work with Oklahoma State University is an effort to help the U.S. meet its future energy needs, and assist in the industry’s public relations, which takes time.

“Well, first of all, we had to change the narrative of energy. We sat by and listened to everybody else use the ‘F word,’ as in ‘frackers.’ It wasn’t something that I liked to be called—and I’ve been called a lot,” he said to snickers from those gathered at the assembly.

But the industry isn’t understood on a personal level, and through his public work, particularly with universities, including at OSU’s Hamm Institute, he is trying to make a difference.

“I wrote a book called ‘Game Changers’ that brought it back to a personal level, that is who we are. We're real people doing a real job with a real purpose and doing it for America and not for ourselves,” he said.