EXCLUSIVE: Despite the ongoing conflict in Iran, President Donald Trump’s “energy czar,” Doug Burgum, is confident the “temporary blip up” in gas and energy prices facing Americans will come back down very soon as the president’s “drill baby drill” agenda takes effect.

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Burgum, who leads the Interior Department and chair of Trump’s National Energy Dominance Council, said: “It’s all about supply.”

“You want prices to go down? Supply has got to go up,” he said. To this end, he said his agency approved a record 6,000-plus drilling permits on U.S. soil, reversing the Biden administration’s trend of increased regulation that he said had stunted the country’s energy independence.

“We have a temporary blip up now because of the conflict in the Middle East, but as you heard the news earlier this morning, energy prices dropped a lot today, and stock markets [are] up and energy prices down; those are all positive things for working Americans to have those two things happening simultaneously,” he said.

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Despite criticism of the president’s actions on the global stage, Burgum said these moves, such as the military intervention in Venezuela and negotiations with leadership, are going to help reduce prices for Americans.

“What happened in Venezuela actually helps Americans a lot because now we’ve got Venezuelan oil flowing towards Gulf of America refineries in Louisiana and Texas,” he said.

Another major policy shift Burgum said he expects to make a big difference for Americans is the administration’s actions to “unleash Alaska.”

“The Biden administration had taken over 70 legal actions, executive orders from President Biden to regulatory actions, which were essentially sanctioning Alaska more than we sanctioned Iran during the last administration,” he explained.

Pressed on when Americans can expect to start seeing prices tick back down, Burgum said, “I think we started to see how they were happening and they happened quite effectively over the first year of the Trump administration.” He also pointed out that prices “vary a lot” depending on which state you live in and the extent of regulation and taxes placed on oil and gas production.

“Consumers need to understand that it is not just federal action, but it’s state and local action that’s often driving up the cost of your energy,” he said. “It’s not quite as simple as red state versus blue state. But if you take a look at gas prices before the war, red states were among all the lowest states in the country, blue states were among the highest in terms of that. And it was a reflection of the policies of those state legislatures and those governors that were driving energy prices up.”

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As an example, he said that just a month ago, gas prices in Iowa were under $2 per gallon, while the price in California was $5.

“California imports 63 percent of its oil from foreign countries,” he explained, adding, “At the time of this breakout with Iran … California, by their own data, provided by the state of California, the number one country they were importing oil from in California was from Iraq.”

“They always brag about, ‘Oh, if we were a country, we’d have one of the world’s largest economies.’ And if they were a county, they would have designed for themselves one of the most energy-dependent and energy-expensive economies,” he said of California.

“They’re not saving the planet by using foreign oil in California when you could have been getting clean, reliable, affordable energy, say from the Permian Basin in Texas or New Mexico,” he continued. “When you think you’re saving the planet by blocking U.S. infrastructure, you artificially raise the prices.”

To push back on this, Burgum said that, authorized by Trump’s energy emergency declaration, Energy Secretary Chris Wright recently ordered California to reopen its Santa Ynez pipeline system to resume pumping domestic offshore oil. The order is being challenged by California in court; however, oil has already begun being pumped.

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He framed the administration’s “energy abundance” agenda as a move back to reality after four years of “climate fantasy” under former President Joe Biden. This move, he said, stands in stark opposition to policies still being pursued in blue states like California.

“We’re focused on energy reality, which is all Americans deserve and need to have reliable, affordable, and secure energy,” he said. “We’re fighting for every citizen in the country, regardless of what state regime they’re under. Because like I said, every American, no matter where you live, deserves to have affordable, reliable, and nationally secure energy.”  

Fox News Digital reached out to spokespeople for Biden and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The U.S. military has sent MQ-9 Reaper drones to Nigeria, a U.S. defense official reportedly told The Associated Press, as fears are growing of a renewed insurgency by the terrorist group Boko Haram. 

The drones were deployed after 200 U.S. troops arrived in Nigeria last month to provide training and intelligence. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, is battling a complex security crisis, especially in the north of the country. 

A spokesperson for AFRICOM, the U.S. Africa Command, told the AP that U.S. troops “are working alongside their Nigerian counterparts to provide intelligence support, advisory assistance, and targeted training in support of the Nigerian Armed Forces.” 

Among the most prominent Islamic militant groups active in Nigeria are Boko Haram and its breakaway faction, which is affiliated with the Islamic State and is known as Islamic State West Africa Province, or ISWAP.  

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There is also the ISIS-linked Lakurawa, as well as other “bandit” groups that specialize in kidnapping for ransom and illegal mining. 

The U.S. troops and the MQ-9 drones are based at Bauchi Airfield, a newly built airport in the northeast of the country, the spokesperson said to the AP. The number of drones deployed remains unclear. 

The deployment is part of a new security partnership agreed on after President Donald Trump sounded the alarm about Christians being slaughtered in Nigeria’s security crisis. 

The U.S. launched strikes against IS forces on Dec. 26 — the day after Christmas.

Earlier this month, three suspected suicide bombings killed at least 23 people and wounded 108 others in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state in northeastern Nigeria. No group claimed responsibility, but suspicion quickly fell on Boko Haram, which in 2009 launched an insurgency in northeastern Nigeria to enforce Sharia law.

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MQ-9 drones cost around $30 million apiece and have separate models for land and sea. They can also be used to carry out airstrikes, but AFRICOM says they will only be used in Nigeria for intelligence-gathering and training. 

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence says Boko Haram aims to “overthrow the current Nigerian Government and replace it with a regime based on Islamic law.” 

“The U.S. State Department designated Boko Haram a Foreign Terrorist Organization in November 2013,” it added. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

A Connecticut woman accused of holding her stepson as a prisoner in a “house of horrors” for two decades has been slapped with additional charges stemming from the alleged captivity. 

Kimberly Sullivan, 57, is facing two charges of first-degree kidnapping, along with charges of assault, intentional cruelty to persons and unlawful restraint, according to Court TV.

The charges are reportedly identical to those Sullivan initially faced last year, but have been updated to reflect new information surrounding the case. 

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“This wasn’t true then, it isn’t true now,” Sullivan’s attorney, Ionnis Kalodis, reportedly said.

Sullivan is accused of locking her stepson in a storage closet for at least 22 hours a day since he was 11 years old in March 1996, according to court records. The stepson, referred to as “S” in court documents, was 32 years old when Sullivan was arrested. 

A police affidavit revealed S told investigators he was fed only two sandwiches and one water bottle each day, and was provided with a second water bottle “for bathing.”

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In February 2025, S lit Sullivan’s Waterbury house on fire to escape captivity. He was just 68 pounds when firefighters pulled him from the burning building. 

Last year, Sullivan was granted access to her stepson’s new identity, medical records and current address after asking a judge to hand over the information, according to WFSB.

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“The state’s position, stripped of its appeal to ‘victim’ protection, amounts to this: the accuser may assume a new identity, relocate to an undisclosed address, and the defendant charged with serious felonies arising from their decades-long relationship must be kept in the dark,” Kaloidis reportedly argued in the court filing.

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The move sent shockwaves throughout S’s family, with the victim’s biological mother blasting the request from Sullivan’s defense team.

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“If you look at any domestic violence situation, you’re not going to let the person who is being the evil person around the one who needs to be protected,” Tracy Vallerand told the New York Post. 

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“It’s appalling that they even had the audacity to request that.”

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Vallerand reportedly gave up custody of S decades ago, leaving the child with her ex, who died in 2024, and Sullivan. 

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Sullivan has pleaded guilty to all charges and remains free on $300,000 as she awaits trial.

Sullivan’s attorney did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

Fox News Digital’s Peter D’Abrosca and Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.