“David Bernhardt was a tough and capable cabinet leader as my Secretary of the Interior. He was a ‘bulldog’ when advancing many of my great achievements at Interior and putting America on the road to energy dominance and deregulation. He pushed very hard to get big results at a historic pace.”

Former President, Donald J. Trump, 2023.

David Bernhardt is the only person to ever be confirmed by the U. S. Senate to serve as secretary, deputy secretary and solicitor of the Department of the Interior in its 175-year history. His career includes roles as an attorney, a public servant and author.

His experience as the leader of federal agencies during both the administration of Donald J. Trump and George W. Bush, provides a unique foundation to offer insights and to develop strategies to help organizations optimize opportunities and resolve challenges.

While serving as the 53rd secretary of the Department of the Interior, David led a U.S. cabinet department with an asset portfolio that exceeded $300 billion, a $16 billion annual budget and nearly 70,000 employees through a period of transformational improvement and change.

A creative problem solver, David focused his efforts to further conservation stewardship, expand opportunities to enhance our nation’s energy independence and dramatically drove transformational regulatory change. Among other duties, he led the Trump administration’s effort to enact the Great American Outdoors Act and President Trump tasked him with playing a key role on initiatives such as addressing the threat to the domestic supply chain from reliance on critical minerals from foreign adversaries.

Before serving as secretary, David served as deputy secretary at Interior, where he led many significant initiatives ranging from: modernizing business processes related to permitting authorizations and denials; creating and implementing policies and practices to address a systemic culture of harassment in the workplace; dramatically improving the ethics program; and developing one of the most diverse leadership teams in the department’s history.

At the conclusion of the Trump Administration, David established the consultancy 53 Solutions LLC; engaged in legal and business enterprises; and dedicated a sizable portion of his time to furthering sound public policy through efforts such as serving as the Chairman of the Center for American Freedom with the America First Policy Institute (AFPI). His memoir entitled, “YOU REPORT TO ME, Accountability For the Failing Administrative State“ is now available in its second printing. David resides in Arlington Virginia with his spouse Gena Bernhardt.

For more information, see www.davidlbernhardt.com.